Development of Infectious Waste Management Model in In-Patient Departments of Loei Hospital

Abstract

This research aimed to study the development of infectious waste management in
in-patient department of Loei hospital. The study activities included; 1) investigation of situation of
infectious waste management using the observation form and study on infectious waste
management practice by interviewing officers, the samples were registered nurses, technician
nurses, practical nurses, and patient care personnel with a total of 136 persons, 2) development
of infectious waste management by organizing a workshop with pre- and posttest of knowledge
of 60 participants, 3) implementing infectious waste management actions of in-patient
departments using guidance generated from workshop, and 4) quantifying infectious waste
generation before and after the implementation actions with 30-day interval.
The results indicated the infectious waste generation was 0.9 kg/capita/day. The
situation on infectious waste management was not appropriate in some activities as the mixed up
waste appeared in in-patient departments. Proper dress-up was observed among the infectious
waste management officer. The workshop proposed a set of solutions as; 1) for human resource,
there should be a training course for those officers and communicating with customers on
proper littering and separating wastes, 2 budgeting, there should be a budget allocated for
infectious waste management, 3) materials and supplies, there should be a review on having
adequate materials and supplies for infectious waste management, and 4 administration and
management practices, there should be an initiation of organization policy for driving an
implementation process linked with other sectors within the hospital. After development of
infectious waste management actions in in-patient departments, It was found that the
infectious waste generation was reduced by 5.28% while decreasing a generation of 0.1 kg/
capita/day. In addition, good practice on waste management and pre- and posttest scores
averaged 14.20 and 18.41, respectively with a significant level of p value<0.05.