Hospitals are essential sites that tend to generate hazardous waste.
Every hospital has its profile, which produces and transports waste as per the location of the hospital. It is also vital to manage the trash adequately generated by the hospital to avoid health and environmental risks.
The other waste items that are produced through healthcare that are not hazardous include medication boxes, packaging of medical issues and food items, remains of food, and waste from the offices.
The management of hospital-generated waste is the responsibility of hospital administration but also of each department and each healthcare-providing personnel in the hospital.
This is a process that must begin at the site of a generation where the medical waste must be appropriately collected and must be segregated from the non-hazardous wastes in the specific color-coded receptacles.
The transportation of the hazardous health care waste management plan must be well mapped in the hospital and should be conveyed by the special carts. The flow of hazardous healthcare waste must be adequately controlled from the sources of the generations to its final treatment.
The plan that is presented here is the most crucial step for the proper management of hazardous healthcare waste. This also provides an appraisal of the profile of the generation, transportation, storage, and collection of healthcare waste in the hospital.
Having some policy and some set of procedures, that regulate the handling of healthcare waste is vital for the implementation of an effective healthcare waste management plan.
Healthcare providers must be educated on generating waste in the course of providing healthcare and must be encouraged to utilize medical items rationally. Orientation on the way hospital handles healthcare waste must be a part of all the in-service training and education programs.
All the hospital staff irrespective of status, medical students, and cleaners must be responsible for properly handling the healthcare waste. It is essential to motivate the healthcare staff to follow the procedure and pay attention to correct the disposal of the waste items into the perfect receptacles.
The contracted housekeepers or the environmental services must be well acquainted with the layout of the hospital and also comprehend the policies and the procedures of the particular hospitals on managing the waste for using proper waste disposal methods thoroughly.
The various means of collection, transportation, and storage sites must be efficient and also meet the required standards of the regulatory body.
The location of the areas must be considered the peculiar setting of the individual departments, the flow of the patients in the mobile services, the bed location, and the number in the wards.
There should be restricted access to the healthcare staff and off-bounds to the visitors and the patients. The type and weight of the healthcare waste could be planned and determined well in advance by reviewing the inventory of the medical supplies that are purchased.
It is also wise to bear in mind the waste potential of the supplies whenever making the order. The recycling practices are set up by the hospitals to reduce healthcare waste and also protect the environment and save money.