Assessment of biomedical solid waste generation rate and It’s management practice in bako primary hospital, bako town, West shewa zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Biomedical waste is a type of hazardous waste that is produced during the diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of humans. As a result, it requires special attention and management before disposal. Most developing countries, including Ethiopia, have no effective health care waste management practices. There is a lack of research that has gone into greater detail about the main cause of the high proportion of hazardous waste generation in comparison to general waste, as well as the average waste generation per patient flow in the studied health facility. Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the biomedical solid waste generation rate and its management practice at Bako Primary Hospital, Bako town, western Oromia, Ethiopia. Methods: Facility-based cross-sectional study design for quantitative and case study qualitative was used to assess the biomedical solid waste generation rate and management practice in Bako primary hospital from July 12-18/2021.The study was conducted to manage data quality, training, pre-testing, and weighting scale calibration were used. A calibrated weight balance was used to calculate the amount of biomedical solid waste generated. The current practice of biomedical solid waste management was evaluated using an observational checklist and a semi-structured interview guide. The correlation between the total number of patients and the total amount of biomedical waste generated was assessed using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (r). The collected data was organized and entered into Epi data version 3.1 and it was cleaned to eliminate missing values, outliers, and other inconsistencies. Data was cleaned before being exported to SPSS version 26for analysis and a one-way ANOVA test was performed. Questionaries’ was translated to local language Afan Oromo, then back to English to keep its consistency. Result: The average daily generation rate of biomedical waste was determined to be 0.69kg/bed/day and/ or 0.381kg/patient/day. At the point of generation, there was no segregation of biomedical waste by type. Substandard open plastic bins were used to collect and transport mixed biomedical solid waste. Conclusion: The average biomedical waste generation rate in Bako primary hospital was (0.69kg/bed/day and/or 0.381kg/patient/day)were above the threshold value of the hazardous biomedical solid waste generation rate in low-income countries, was by reported by WHO, and its management was underprivileged. There was lack of appropriate biomedical waste segregation with different waste categories at point of generation and inadequate waste collection equipment’s in most of all in different departments. There is an urgent need to establish standard biomedical solid waste management at all.