Assessing generated quantities of infectious medical wastes: a case study for a health region administration in Central Macedonia, Greece.

In the present study, the quantities of infectious medical wastes, generated from 12 public hospitals supervised by the 2nd Health Region Administration of Central Macedonia, Northern Greece, were calculated at a very disaggregated level for the first time and were compared to other reported characterization studies. Data was recorded by using an appropriately designed questionnaire, which was completed for each day of one week, in every department, clinic, unit or laboratory of each one of the 12 aforementioned hospitals. Afterwards, average generation indexes were determined in relation to certain important organizational and functional factors, such as the number of beds, bed coverage, the different hospital sections and wards, and the type of hospital. The way that sources of infectious wastes, generated from hospitals, vary by ward and department, was also illustrated and the most important sources were identified. Generated infectious hospital wastes vary from 0.26 to 0.89 kg/bed/day or 0.51 to 1.22 kg/patient/day, excluding the three specialised hospitals of the Health Region. The total amount of medical waste generated from the 2nd Health Region (only public hospitals) was estimated to be 691 tonnes/yr or 0.73 kg/cap/yr. Copyright 2008. Published by Elsevier Ltd.