Journal
WASTE MANAGEMENT & RESEARCH
Volume 39, Issue 1_SUPPL, Pages 56-63Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/0734242X211010362
Keywords
Healthcare waste management; reverse logistics; HCWM indicators; HCWM evaluation; multi-criteria decision analysis; COVID-19
Categories
Funding
- Brazilian agency Foundation for the Promotion of Science of the State of Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG)
- Brazilian agency Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq)
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The objective of the article was to develop a support tool to identify shortcomings in hospitals' healthcare waste management. Most hospitals were found to have good HCWM evaluations, but still faced difficulties in training their employees properly, which could be a more serious issue during a pandemic.
With the spread of the new Coronavirus, there was an increase in the generation of contaminated waste. Thus, healthcare waste management (HCWM) became even a greater challenge in hospitals due to Coronavirus easily spread. In this context, it was necessary to create tools that could aid healthcare facilities in evaluating their HCWM. Therefore, the objective of this article was to elaborate a support tool that helps in identifying the shortcomings of hospitals' HCWM. For this purpose, the Health Service Waste Management Index was developed based on the selection of indicators in the area. The index was applied to six hospitals in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Its application meet the purpose of this research, since the results in the form of an index objectively summarize the reality of the HCWM in healthcare facilities. From the six hospitals investigated, four were classified as highly efficient. However, even though most of them were well evaluated, they still have difficulties with properly training their employees, which can be even a worse problem during a pandemic, when every precaution is extremely important to reduce the spread of the disease. Therefore, beyond this article contribution related to sustainability by demanding the hospitals to check which points of HCWM should be improved, it also adds academically by developing a tool with indicators that evaluate operational, human, economic and environmental factors in an innovative way.
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