Abstract
BackgroundProper management of medical wastes can help prevent serious consequences of catastrophic events or accidents in the hospital and its near or far environment.MethodA quality performance improvement project has been carried out to increase adherence to waste management policy of infection control, to ensure that departments are following basic health rules of their communities. In this project, the team utilized the basic Six Sigma breakthrough problem-solving methodology: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control (DMAIC) to examine the original (root) causes of the problem, in a healthcare facility in Egypt from January to August 2016. The team re-modulated a place for interim storage of hospital-regulated hazardous medical waste and compensate for workers’ fatigue by participation of professional housekeeping company.ResultsWeekly recording of errors in performance in waste management process demonstrates process stability through the first 12 weeks, and shifting towards the desired direction of reduced errors in waste management performance was obtained from the 13th week ongoing.ConclusionInfection preventionists using their routine monitoring data could help the organization to fulfill accreditation requirements for quality assurance through the performance improvement project and to keep all hospital staff, visitors, and the surrounding environment safe and secure.
Highlights
Wastes generated by healthcare facilities are divided into 85% non-hazardous waste which is generated by administrative departments and general cleaning work within the hospital and is treated to general/municipal waste
The aim of the work is to improve the performance of the existing waste management system in the facility, through conducting a quality improvement project to initiate some action plans to organize and control the waste management process according to infection control policy and to build awareness/consciousness among hospital staff
Define step Identify a project After analyzing the process of waste management at hospital, it was noticed that complaints about its performance have been increased, and the hospital was penalized for improper waste disposal
Summary
Wastes generated by healthcare facilities are divided into 85% non-hazardous waste which is generated by administrative departments and general cleaning work within the hospital and is treated to general/municipal waste. Hazardous medical waste is generated from contaminated sources or potentially contaminated with infectious, chemical, or radioactive sources that pose a potential risk to health. This constitutes a small percentage of 15% of total healthcare waste (WHO Fact Sheet 2018; Martin 2005). Safe disposal of liquid infectious waste, blood, suctioned fluids, ground tissues, excretions, and secretions, can be done through sanitary sewers, on the condition that local sewage discharge requirements are fulfilled and that the authority has accepted this to be an appropriate method of disposal (Recommendations of CDC and the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) 2003). Proper management of medical wastes can help prevent serious consequences of catastrophic events or accidents in the hospital and its near or far environment
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