Journal of Research in Environmental Health

Journal of Research in Environmental Health

Studying How to Manage Hospital Waste Using Hierarchical Analysis Model (A Case Study of Mashhad City)

Document Type : Research article

Authors
Adeleh Hajihosseini Beitari 1
Akram Ghorbani 2
Mohammad Ghafoori 3
1 MSc, Department Of environment, Kheradgarayan Motahar, Institue Of Education , Mashhad, Iran.
2 Assistant Professor, Department Of environment, Kheradgarayan Motahar, Institue Of Education , Mashhad, Iran
3 Professor, Department of Geology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran.
10.22038/jreh.2025.25645
Abstract
Background and purpose: unfortunately according to the importance of separating infectious and non-infectious waste and using special containers for storing waste, these instructions are not implemented in most hospitals in Mashhad. Therefore, it is inevitable to investigate these units in order to reduce the transmission of pathogens to the environment.

Materials and Methods: 15 hospitals were selected as hospitals were examined as samples that include the most important and necessary departments. The sample size of 180 people was randomly designed based on that questionnaire. The extracted factors were analyzed using the hierarchical analysis process model. In order to compare the correlation, Pearson's test was used with a significance level of 1% and 5%.  

Results: The comparison of correlation coefficient showed that all the investigated criteria in different sections were significant at (P<0.05) and (P<0.01) percentage levels. The results of selecting the best hospital waste management option using the AHP method revealed that the autoclave decontamination method with a weight of (248) got the highest score among the five investigated methods. Sanitary burial in the ground with weight (217) is in the second place. Using the incinerator with a weight of (148) has been ranked fifth or last.

Conclusion: The most important factor in hospital waste management is attention and mportance to environmental criteria. In the case of proper management of hospital waste, environmental pollution will be significantly reduced.
 
Open Access Policy: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Keywords
Hospital Waste
Environmental Pollution
AHP Model
Mashhad City
1-Ebrahimi,M.,ShamAbadi.N.,2012. Waste, a pollutant or an opportunity. National conference on human environment and sustainable development.
2- Aghapour, P., Ramin, N., Jafar, N., Masoud, M., Kanyar, Y., 2013. Analysis of hospital waste using a healthcare waste management index. Toxicol. Environ. Chem. 95, 579-589.(in Persian) https://doi.org/10.1080/02772248.2013.802792
3- Ahmed Khan B, Cheng L, Khan A.A, Ahmed H. Healthcare waste management in Asian developing Countries: A mini review. Waste Management & Research. 2019; 37(9): 863-875. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734242X19857470 PMid:31266407
4- Alao, M. A., Popoola, O. M., & Ayodele, T. R. (2021). Selection of waste-to-energy technology for distributed generation using IDOCRIW-Weighted TOPSIS method: A case study of the City of Johannesburg, South Africa. Renewable Energy, 178, 162-183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2021.06.031
5- Asgari Lajayer, B., Najafi, N., Moghiseh, E., Mosaferi, M., & Hadian, J. (2020). Effects of gamma irradiation on physicochemical and biological characteristics of wastewater effluent and sludge. International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, 17, 1021-1034. (in Persian) https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-019-02410-7
6- Azadeh, A., Ahmadzadeh, K., & Eslami, H. (2019). Location optimization of municipal solid waste considering health, safety, environmental, and economic factors. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 62, 1185-1204.(in Persian) https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2018.1482200
7- Baralla G, Pinna A, Tonelli R, et al. (2023) Waste management: A comprehensive state of the art about the rise of blockchain technology. Computers in Industry 145: 103812.
8- Chauhan, A., Singh, A., & Jharkharia, S. (2018). Healthcare waste management practices' identification and evaluation to rank hospitals. International Journal of Operational Research, 33(3), 367-386.
9- Delmonico, D. V. D. G., Santos, H. H. D., Pinheiro, M. A., de Castro, R., & de Souza, R. M. (2018). Waste management barriers in developing country hospitals: Case study and AHP analysis. Waste Management & Research, 36(1), 48-58. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734242X17739972 PMid:29153036
10- Gumus, T. A. (2009). Evaluation of hazardous waste transportation firms by using a two-step fuzzy-AHP and TOPSIS methodology. Expert Systems with Applications, 36, 4067-4074. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2008.03.013
11- Hashemi-Amiri, O., Mohammadi, M., Rahmanifar, G., Hajiaghaei-Keshteli, M., Fusco, G., & Colombaroni, C. (2023). An allocation-routing optimization model for integrated solid waste management.
12- Liu, Hu Chen, You, Jian Xin, Lu, Chao, Chen, Yi Zeng, 2015. Evaluating health-care waste treatment technologies using a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making model. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 41, 932-942.
13- Rathore, P., & Sarmah, S. (2019). Modeling transfer station locations considering source separation of solid waste in urban centers: A case study of Bilaspur city, India. Journal of Cleaner Production, 211, 44–60.