Waste management in non-hospital emergency units

Abstract

Objective: to analyze waste management in urgency and emergency non-hospital health care service units. Method: Epidemiological cross-sectional study undertaken at three NonHospital Emergency Units. The data were collected using systematic observation, registered daily in a spreadsheet and checklist, and analyzed through descriptive statistics. Results: the generation of waste varied from 0.087 to 0.138 kg per patient per day. Waste management showed inadequacies in all stages, especially in the separation stage. Infectious waste was found together with common waste, preventing recycling, and piercing and cutting objects were mixed with waste from different groups, increasing the risk of occupational accidents. Conclusion: the study reveals the lack of an institutional waste management policy, as demonstrated by the failure of operational stages, involving problems related to management, physical structure, material and human resources at the units. This is relevant for health care units, considering the quality of patient care and its interface with sustainability. Manejo de residuos en las unidades no hospitalarias de urgencia y emergenciaObjetivo: analizar la gestión de los residuos en unidades hospitalarias de emergencias y urgencias. Método: estudio epidemiológico. Los datos fueron recolectados por observación sistemática, registrados diariamente en una hoja de cálculo y check list y analizados mediante estadística descriptiva. Resultados: la generación de residuos varió desde 0,087 hasta 0,138 kg / usuario / día. La gestión de los residuos mostró deficiencias en todas las etapas, especialmente en la segregación. Fueron encontrados residuos infecciosos añadidos a los comunes, invalidando el reciclaje, así como materiales punzantes y cortantes mezclados con los diferentes grupos, amentando el riesgo de accidentes de trabajo. Conclusión: el estudio revela la ausencia de una política institucional para la gestión de los residuos, como lo demuestran las fallas en las medidas operacionales, que implican problemas de gestión, estructura física, recursos materiales y humanos de las unidades. Muestra relevancia para los servicios de salud en lo que se refiere a la calidad del servicio para el usuario y su interfaz con la sostenibilidad.

The reality of waste management in primary health care units in Brazil

“…However, this portion was stored together with infectious waste, thus rendering it non-recyclable and increasing the quantity of infectious waste, with consequent financial and environmental burdens. There is significant production of common waste in public health services (Tramontini et al, 2009), but also issues relating to the time of its disposal, with the latter coinciding with the disposal time of infectious waste (Alves et al, 2012;Pereira et al, 2013). Table 3.…”

“…The activities implemented in these units are mainly focused on health promotion and prevention of disease and generate small quantities of waste in comparison with hospitals (Alagoz and Kocasoy, 2008;Gai et al, 2010;Moreira and Gunther, 2013;Pereira et al, 2013;Shinee et al, 2008). The somewhat distant location of these units, together with their relatively low levels of waste generation, hinder daily collection of this waste, which is stored in inappropriate locations for up to seven days until its collection through the public collection service.…”

“…In order to prepare a medical waste management plan, the unit must learn about the characteristics and quantity of waste generated per group (Pereira et al, 2013). To do so, it is necessary to observe, register, and quantify the types of waste produced within each group.…”

“…The generation of RSS in kg user-day varies between developed and developing countries (Abd El-Salam, 2010;Bendjoudi et al, 2009;Cheng et al, 2009;Debere et al, 2013;Komilis et al, 2012;Patwary et al, 2009;Ruoyan et al, 2010;Sawalem et al, 2009) and across public and private hospitals (Tesfahun et al, 2014). However, few studies have described the characteristics of waste generated in primary care (Gessner et al, 2013;Moreira and Gunther, 2013;Pereira et al, 2013).…”

Waste Management of Healthcare Services From the Perspective of Nursing Professionals

“…[9][10][11] Studies highlight the need to equip these health professionals for the appropriate management of HSW. 2,[9][10][11][12] In that sense, this research was developed to identify the knowledge of nursing professionals at pediatric inpatient services about health service waste management.…”