Benefits of Medical Waste Management in the Facility Health Services

Abstract

Medical waste is all waste generated from hospital activities in the form of solid, liquid, and gas. The hospital, as a health service facility, is a gathering place for sick and healthy people and can be a source of disease transmission and allows environmental pollution and health problems, also producing waste that can transmit disease. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), waste generated by health service activities includes various kinds of materials, from used needles to soiled sanitary napkins, body parts, diagnostic samples, blood, chemicals, drugs, medical devices, and radioactive materials. To avoid these risks, it is necessary to manage waste in hospitals to protect patients, health workers, visitors, and the community around the hospital from the spread of infection and injury. The aim is to find out the benefits of medical waste management in health care facilities. The method used in writing this article is a literature review by identifying, evaluating, and synthesizing the works of research results and ideas that have been produced by researchers and practitioners. The results of the search process were only taken 27 articles that met the inclusion criteria, namely articles published in the period 2012-2021 and had discussions related to "the benefits of medical waste management in health care facilities and English. Medical waste management is getting rid of and utilizing general waste for other purposes. For general waste, the handling is identical to other domestic waste. Recycling is implemented wherever possible at every opportunity. Uninfected sharps must be properly packaged and will not harm handling workers and can be disposed of like general waste, while infected sharps are treated as hazardous waste.