Department of Production Engineering, São Paulo State University (Unesp), Brazil.
Waste Manag Res. 2018 Jan;36(1):48-58. doi: 10.1177/0734242X17739972. Epub 2017 Nov 20.
Healthcare waste management is an essential field for both researchers and practitioners. Although there have been few studies using statistical methods for its evaluation, it has been the subject of several studies in different contexts. Furthermore, the known precarious practices for waste management in developing countries raise questions about its potential barriers. This study aims to investigate the barriers in healthcare waste management and their relevance. For this purpose, this paper analyses waste management practices in two Brazilian hospitals by using case study and the Analytic Hierarchy Process method. The barriers were organized into three categories - human factors, management, and infrastructure, and the main findings suggest that cost and employee awareness were the most significant barriers. These results highlight the main barriers to more sustainable waste management, and provide an empirical basis for multi-criteria evaluation of the literature.
医疗废物管理是研究人员和从业者都必须精通的领域。虽然很少有研究使用统计方法对其进行评估，但在不同背景下已经有多项研究涉及这一主题。此外，发展中国家已知的医疗废物管理不稳定做法引发了对其潜在障碍的质疑。本研究旨在探讨医疗废物管理中的障碍及其相关性。为此，本文通过案例研究和层次分析法分析了巴西两家医院的废物管理实践。障碍被分为三类 - 人为因素、管理和基础设施，主要发现表明，成本和员工意识是最重要的障碍。这些结果突出了更可持续的废物管理的主要障碍，并为文献的多标准评价提供了经验基础。
