Title: Waste management of health services: a study on the situation in the Brazilian hospital sector

Authors: Leonardo de Lima Moura; Ronaldo Ferreira Da Silva

Addresses: Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia Civil, COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Av. Horácio Macedo n°2030, Prédio do Centro de Tecnologia, Bloco B, sala B-101, Ilha do Fundão-RJ,21941-972, Brazil ' Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Management, Fluminense Federal University, R. Mário Viana 523, Santa Rosa, Niteroí-RJ, 24241-000, Brazil

Abstract: In spite of the arising benefits of voluntary certificate, the adoption of environmental management systems is associated with external and internal barrier and hospitals usually have a reactive behaviour towards the environmental regulations. The study aims to analyse the contribution of environmental regulations for the healthcare waste management procedure (HCWMP) through a bibliometric survey of theses and dissertations available in the Brazilian digital library of theses and dissertations in the period of 2007-2012. As a result, 14 dissertations and three theses with a predominance of single case studies of qualitative and quantitative research were obtained. Regarding the main flaws in HCWMP, it can be highlighted that the authors reported the lack of employees' environmental training as one of the main problems. In conclusion, the contribution of environmental regulations enforced in healthcare establishments for the establishment of standards of issuance and performance, it is noted that even though a great majority of establishments show HCWMPs, a significant improvement was not obtained for the environmental quality and performance standards which is one of the objectives of these instruments once healthcare units show problems in all of the stages described and regulated by the current legislation.

Keywords: hospitals; health waste management; health services; environmental regulations; Brazil; healthcare management; hospital performance; environmental management systems; EMS; bibliometrics; environmental training; employee training.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2016.078014

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2016 Vol.11 No.2, pp.295 - 309

Received: 07 Jan 2015
Accepted: 11 Jan 2015
Published online: 31 Jul 2016 *

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