The Study on Hospital Waste Management Practices among the Different Hospitals of Bheemdatta Municipality of Kanchanpur District, Far-western Region, Nepal

Abstract

Background: Hospital waste refers to the wastes generated by healthcare facilities, from their departments like laboratories, pathology, nursing, surgical, mortuary & autopsy & various other units in either solid or liquid form which can be either general non-hazardous waste, hazardous waste, infectious waste toxic or radioactive waste. The proper management of healthcare waste is essential to prevent from the adverse outcomes that the improper waste can cause to deteriorate the health of human beings, animals, hospital patients etc. It also forbids the possibility of infectious disease spreading, & greatly reduces the risk to public health. Hospital wastes are dangerous for each & every life in the earth thus, they need to be managed safely with proper plan, policy that helps to make environment hygienic, infection free & clean. Objectives: The overall objective of this study is to identify the hospital waste management practices among the different hospitals. Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted in the hospitals of Bheem dutta municipality of Kanchanpur district where the convenience hospital staffs were selected & used to collect the data. The total sample size of 81 is taken which by using non-probability convenience sampling by considering limited time, resources & accessibility. Structured questionnaire was used as a major tool for this study. Result: According to the data analyzed, it is found that all the hospitals have proper HCW management plan & each of them follows it too but, only 66.7 percentages are following 3R technique, 71.6 percentages of staffs are satisfied with the waste management in the hospitals, 70 percentages have awareness regarding the nature & risk of the waste they handle daily, and only 56.8 percentages of the hospitals are following the WHO recommendation in waste management. Conclusion: Although having a proper HCW management plan by a hospital is not being sufficient for waste management in a hospital because of lack of strict adherence to the rules, no strict policies from the municipality & government, lack of ample fund with the hospitals & lack of proper knowledge on safe handling of wastes along with lack of awareness on staff about the consequences of improper waste handling it is becoming a crucial for the hospitals to manage the wastes properly.