Official publication of Rawalpindi Medical University
Health Care Waste Management Practices in Public and Private Sector Hospitals
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How to Cite

1.
Samina Badar, Muhammad Akram Saeed, Seema Yasmeen, Wajahat Hussain, Mohammad Asim Amjad, . Huda Abbas. Health Care Waste Management Practices in Public and Private Sector Hospitals. JRMC [Internet]. 2014 Jun. 30 [cited 2024 Mar. 28];18(1). Available from: http://journalrmc.com/index.php/JRMC/article/view/413

Abstract

Background: To assess the existing health care waste management practices in public and private sector hospitals of Bahawalpur City.
Methods: In this cross sectional descriptive study all private hospitals of Bahawalpur City and 24 public sector sites from four hospitals were selected by simple random sampling for observation of practices of hospital waste management.The scoring system for the observation checklist consisted of giving a score one for step done correctly, while the step not done was given zero. Fisher’s exact test was applied to see any statistical difference in practices of public and private sector hospitals and ‘p’ value <0.05 was considered as a lowest level of significance.
Results: Out of total 48 hospitals (24 public and 24 private sector) observed for medical waste management practices in Bahawalpur city, in public sector 50% were segregating medical waste from other waste stream while in private sector it was only 16.6%. Separate area for segregation was present in all public sector hospitals and 58.3% in private sector respectively. Proper containers for segregation, color coding for different types of waste and use of protective measures by waste handlers in public and private sector was 100%, 75%, 33.3% and 58.3%, 33.3%, 25% respectively. In public sector proper container for transport of waste within hospital and storage area for waste awaiting disposal was present in all public sector hospitals and in private sector it was present in 66.6% and 41.6% hospitals respectively. Final disposal of waste was not proper in all public and private sector hospitals. There is no incinerator in Bahawalpur city
Conclusion: Public sector hospitals have better practices of waste management in comparison to private sector hospitals

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