Publication:

Compliance of bio medical waste management practices in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Northeast India

Background The handling of medical waste has recently become a significant problem for all medical centres and healthcare organizations because of the risks it poses to both people and the environment. Objective was to evaluate the compliance of bio-medical waste management practices in different patient care areas in a tertiary care hospital of Agartala, west Tripura.

Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in a total of 58 patient care settings at Agartala Government Medical College for a period of fourteen days using a pre-validated checklist containing 20 items related to availability and condition of waste receptacles, segregation at source of generation frequency of removal of waste and 7 parameters for assessing needle handling practices.

Results A total 58 patients care areas were evaluated. Maximum patient care areas (75.9 %), BMW guidelines were found displayed; in 65.5% patient care settings, location of chart was observed appropriate; and content of chart was readable in 63.7% user areas. Most of the user areas, the 4 colour coded bins were available ranging from 84.5% to 65.5%.  About segregation of wastes, infected/soiled wastes were disposed of in yellow bins in 72.4% of user areas; Sharp glassware and metallic body implants were disposed of in blue bins in 81% of user areas; plastic materials were disposed of in red bins in 79.3% of user areas; and sharp wastes were disposed of in white bins in 60.3% of user areas.

Conclusions The findings suggest that there is still need of improvement of BMW management practices in some user areas.