Effect of Hospitals Specialization and Severity of Disease on Bio-Medical Waste Generation? A COVID-19 Study of Hospitals

Abstract

In this study, using publicly available panel data on bio-medical waste from all the Apollo-Hospitals in Chennai, we try to explore the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on four categories (clinical, infectious, sharp, and bottle waste) waste generation. The entire sample study is categorized into pre-lockdown (no-suspension on activities) and lockdown period (all activities were suspended), as was declared in India by the government in 2020. Using a fixed effect model technique and COVID-19 active treatment cases in the district where the hospital is located, we find significant effect of severity of COVID-19 on hospital’s wastes generation. Severity of COVID-19 in the districts increases the proportion of infectious waste generation, but reduces the proportion of sharp and bottle waste generation to the total waste. The results indicate the huge increase in the bio-medical waste generation during the post COVID-19 era is a result of infectious waste and is generated from some few hospitals with specialty treatment like childcare and cancer. Ignoring these features can lead to upward bias in the estimation.