Abstract
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.
Highlights
Since the beginning of 2020, with the spread of the new Coronavirus, many concerns have been raised over its high contamination rate, symptoms and still uncertain treatment
Stage 1 concerns the selection of healthcare waste management (HCWM) indicators that will be the basis for stages 2 and 3: the formulation of the index and its application in hospitals
A support tool (IGeReS) was developed to help managers understand the main points to be tackled for improving the sector
Summary
Since the beginning of 2020, with the spread of the new Coronavirus, many concerns have been raised over its high contamination rate, symptoms and still uncertain treatment. Another issue often overlooked is the greater amount of residues generated with the treatment and prevention of COVID-19, which, because of its high propagation rate, can contaminate objects and residues; remaining a problem for human health if not managed properly. Hospital waste has increased significantly, contributing to environmental pollution, as most of the masks used are made of nonrenewable petroleum-based materials (Thomasnet, 2020). In a hospital located in the south of Minas Gerais, Brazil there was an 81% increase in waste generation. The most impressive change occurred in a hospital from a metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte where it was estimated with an increase of 425%
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