Abstract
BackgroundHealthcare waste management options are varying in Ethiopia. One of the first critical steps in the process of developing a reliable waste management plan requires a widespread understanding of the amount and the management system. This study aimed to assess the health care waste generation rate and its management system in some selected hospitals located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.MethodsSix hospitals in Addis Ababa, (three private and three public), were selected using simple random sampling method for this work. Data was recorded by using an appropriately designed questionnaire, which was completed for the period of two months. The calculations were based on the weights of the health care wastes that were regularly generated in the selected hospitals over a one week period during the year 2011. Average generation indexes were determined in relation to certain important factors, like the type of hospitals (public vs private).ResultsThe median waste generation rate was found to be varied from 0.361- 0.669 kg/patient/day, comprised of 58.69% non-hazardous and 41.31% hazardous wastes. The amount of waste generated was increased as the number of patients flow increased (rs=1). Public hospitals generated high proportion of total health care wastes (59.22%) in comparison with private hospitals (40.48%). The median waste generation rate was significantly vary between hospitals with Kruskal-Wallis test (X2=30.65, p=0.0001). The amount of waste was positively correlated with the number of patients (p < 0.05). The waste separation and treatment practices were very poor. Other alternatives for waste treatment rather than incineration such as a locally made autoclave should be evaluated and implemented.ConclusionThese findings revealed that the management of health care waste at hospitals in Addis Ababa city was poor.
Highlights
Healthcare waste management options are varying in Ethiopia
health care waste (HCW) generation depends on numerous factors such as type of health care facilities (HCF), hospital specialization, available waste segregation options, seasonal variation, the number of hospital beds, and proportion of patients treated on a daily basis [11]
Generation and classification of health care waste The total quantity of HCW generated at all the hospitals was a median of 182.5 kg/day (See Table 1)
Summary
Healthcare waste management options are varying in Ethiopia. One of the first critical steps in the process of developing a reliable waste management plan requires a widespread understanding of the amount and the management system. Exposure to infectious health care waste (HCW) can cause serious health problems for waste collectors, hospital patients and healthcare workers [7,8]. HCW generation depends on numerous factors such as type of health care facilities (HCF), hospital specialization, available waste segregation options, seasonal variation, the number of hospital beds, and proportion of patients treated on a daily basis [11] (see Figure 1, which depicts the different factors affecting waste generation rates). The generation rates of infectious wastes for nine general hospitals in Central Macedonia were varied from 0.51 to 1.22 kg/patient/day. There is a linear correlation between the generated quantities of infectious wastes (kg/day) and the number of beds for all (twelve) government hospitals (rs = 0.884) and for the general hospitals (rs = 0.945) [13]
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