Solid Waste Management at Kham Sakaesaeng Hospital, Kham Sakaesaeng District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province

Abstract

This study aimed to improve solid waste management by using a participatory action research at
Kham Sakaeseang Hospital of the Kham Sakaeseang district, Nakhon Ratchasima province. The problem of
huge amounts of waste accumulating at the Kham Sakaeseang district had been addressed by 76 officials and
35 patients from June to October 2010. The instruments applied had been questionnaires about the amount
and composition of solid waste and in-depth interviews as well as focus group discussions. The knowledge
and awareness about the problem had been assessed from the participants and patients by asking about their
satisfaction with the solid waste management. The data was analyzed by ordinary statistical methods. The
results of the pre- and post data collection had been compared using the Paired t-test.
After training and the focus group discussion about the improvement of solid waste management a
new model to solve the problem had been developed. The new model included 6 steps as follows. : 1) Problem
identification. 2) Identification of the root cause in order to find the new ways to solve the problem. 3)
Monitoring of the development of the new model. 4) Studying and reviewing the results of the previous work. 5)
Integrating effective activities into routine work. 6) Data collection and analyzes. The final results showed that
after the average value of knowledge, awareness, and participation of officials and the satisfaction of patients
significantly increased. (p <.05). It was found that the amount of infectious waste were reduced by 39.9 % and
general waste reduction was 29.8 % which was significantly different from what was found before initiating the
project (p <.05). The average amount of biodegradable waste increased by 86.7%, which was significantly
different from the beginning of the study (p <.05) However, the average amount of hazardous waste and
recycle waste did not statistically changed during the intervention period (p >.05).