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Review
. 2022 Nov 10;19(22):14820.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph192214820.

Effective Medical Waste Management for Sustainable Green Healthcare

Sang M Lee  1 , DonHee Lee  2
Affiliations
Review

Effective Medical Waste Management for Sustainable Green Healthcare

Sang M Lee et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

This study examines the importance of medical waste management activities for developing a sustainable green healthcare environment. This study applied a multiple methodological approach as follows. A thorough review of the literature was performed to delineate the factors that have been explored for reducing medical waste; hospital staff who handle medical waste were surveyed to obtain their opinions on these factors; the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was applied to determine the priorities among the identified key factors; and experts' opinions were consulted to assess the actual applicability of the results derived by the AHP. The study identified the following factors as the most important: medical waste management (26.6%), operational management issues (21.7%), training for medical waste management procedures (17.8%), raising awareness (17.5%), and environmental assessment (16.4%). This study analyzed the contributing factors to the generation of medical waste based on the data collected from medical staff and the AHP for developing a sustainable green healthcare environment. The study results provide theoretical and practical implications for implementing effective medical waste management toward a sustainable green healthcare environment.

Keywords: analytic hierarchy process; hospitals; medical waste management; priorities of medical waste management activities; sustainable healthcare service.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The analytic hierarchy process framework.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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