Evaluation of Hospital Waste Management and Its Categorization in Valiasr Hospital, Mamasani Nurabad City, Fars

The evaluation of both qualitative and quantitative factors regarding biomedical waste can help remedy the shortcomings of the current hospital waste management (HWM) system. The present study used a questionnaire and a weighing operation to investigate the perceived quality of HWM and the quantity of biomedical waste in Valiasr hospital, Nurabad district, Mamasani county, Iran, from July to September 2013. For 21 days, at the end of each shift, all hospital waste was weighed using scales. In addition, a 21-item questionnaire concerning perceptions of the quality of waste division, collection, storage, and transportation was administered to 40 hospital employees. The results of the weighing operation revealed that the hospital generated 417.99 kg of waste per bed per day (kg/bed-day). Considering that there are 96 beds actively used in the hospital, the average kg/bed-day of waste generated was 2.32 kg/bed-day of infectious waste, 0.03 kg/bed-day of sharps, and 2 kg/bed-day of household waste. The highest amount of infectious waste was generated in the emergency unit and the second highest in the operating rooms. In addition, analysis of questionnaire responses showed that most participants classified HWM activities as good, including waste division (65%), collection and transport to temporary waste storage (77.5%), and transport to the disposal zone (80%). Improper division of wastes by employees and visitors increased the volume of waste identified as infectious by mistakenly adding non-infectious waste to the bags of infectious waste. To reduce the volume of waste identified as infectious, division of wastes must be properly implemented and scrupulously maintained.