Health Care Waste generation rates and patterns: The case of Lebanon

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze Infectious Health Care Waste generation rates and patterns in Lebanon. Therefore, the quantities generated during five years by 57 hospitals from a total of 163 in the country have been analyzed. The seasonal evolution of Infectious Health Care Waste production and the evolution of the evaluation of the trends over years have been studied. Besides, the generation per capita have been estimated and compared to other countries. The variance between categories and the correlation between number of beds and Infectious Health Care Waste generation have been analyzed. The obtained results showed that the large private hospitals (over 200 beds) are characterized by their high generation rate: an average of 2.45kg per occupied bed(-1)day(-1), whereas the average generation rate for other categories is 0.94kg per occupied bed(-1)day(-1). The weighted mean is 1.14 per occupied kgbed(-1)day(-1). Small public hospitals (i.e. less than 100 beds) have the smallest standard deviation: 0.13, whereas large private hospitals (i.e. over than 200 beds) have the highest standard deviation: 0.40. Infectious Health Care Waste generation has been estimated to 1.42kg/capita/year. The correlation between the numbers of hospitals beds in hospitals and the generation rate per bed is weak. The correlation between Infectious Health Care Waste generation per day and beds number is stronger. The total quantity produced by hospitals has increased over the five past years. These results suggest that the quantities of medical waste are not well controlled, and that hospitals have a defective monitoring management system of their waste. Annual peaks are observed in June, July, and December. Thus, this study, for the first time in Lebanon, has provided information on the infectious waste generation, allowing benchmarking between hospitals and between countries.

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