Salih H. Aljabre
University of Dammam, Saudi Arabia
Title: An academic approach to the management of healthcare generated waste
Biography
Biography: Salih H. Aljabre
Abstract
An important source of hazardous waste is the provision of healthcare. Public hospitals are at the top of healthcare establishments in term of the amount and type of waste they generate. In addition to the ordinary household and office wastes, hospitals generate infectious, radioactive and pathological wastes, sharps, pharmaceuticals and other chemicals including genotoxic. The very chronic problem of the management of healthcare generated waste is the mixing of hazardous with non-hazardous waste and the consequences of risk to personnel and discharge of hazardous waste into the conventional municipal disposal sites and its risk to public. A strict safe method for the management of hazardous healthcare is mandatory and should be designed according to the individual hospital. Hazardous waste generated in healthcare facilities in fact should be considered as a component of a hereby proposed syndrome related to the provision of healthcare: healthcare provision defect syndrome, other components of this syndrome include; side effects of treatment, falling patient satisfaction, long waiting list and rising cost. From the academic perspective, the knowledge, attitude and practice of the healthcare personnel regarding the management of healthcare generated waste are fundamental. The second fundamental perspective is the evaluation of the individual hospital profile of the generation of waste and its course within the hospital from the sites of generation to the sites of final collection. The objective of the presentation is to introduce and emphasize the importance of those two perspectives for the strict and safe management of healthcare generated waste.