Medical Waste Management in Private Hospitals in Tehran

Abstract

Background: Solid waste management is one of the important aspects of the hospital management.Methods: In this study, we examined the quantity and composition of medical solid waste in eight private hospitals in Tehran. For this purpose, a checklist was used through interviews with hospital waste management staff as well as collecting information on hospital waste generation. The annual average of obtained data was analyzed in this study.Results: The results indicated that the private hospitals under study generated solid waste ranging from 24 to 1091 kg/day. The average medical waste generation in the studied privative hospitals was 4 kg/bed/day equal to 5.09 kg/patient/day. Common waste accounted for 70.73% of total hospital solid waste, while infectious and sharp waste accounted for 31.04% of the hospital solid waste. Infectious wastes were disinfected using autoclave in all hospitals.Conclusion: Segregation of infectious waste from hospital waste mass reduces the environmental and health risk of hospital waste and reduces the cost of waste management in private hospitals.

Keywords

• waste management
• hospital solid waste
• infectious waste
• chemical and pharmacy waste