DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2018.v06i03.028

Pages: 944-950

During last few decades, the need for better health- care has been felt globally and to cater the needs and demands of the increasing population, a rapid mushrooming of hospitals, both in private and Government sector has occurred. Poor waste management practices pose a huge risk to the health of the public, patients, professionals and contribute to environmental degradation. Issues of improving the management of biomedical wastes are receiving increasing attention throughout the world since healthcare institutions generate tons of biomedical waste each year. So the present study was undertaken to assess knowledge and current practices of biomedical waste management including generation, collection, transportation, storage, in multi-specialty hospital The present study was an observational study and was carried out in multi-speciality hospital at Pune for the period of July 2015 to August 2017. The information regarding Bio-Medical Waste Management practices and safety was collected by way of semi-structured interview, information derived from interview was verified by personal observations of Biomedical waste management practices in each ward of hospital, starting from source, handling, collection, transportation, and final disposal. Total 113 participants were included in the study about biomedical waste management (50 bio waste handler,50 nursing staff, 10 laboratory technicians and 3 In-charge of biomedical waste management were the participants). We found knowledge regarding the coding system found better in nurses and technicians as compared to bio-waste handlers. Knowledge regarding the potential transmission of disease through biomedical waste was observed among only 27% of sanitary workers. Thus we conclude that all staff particularly paramedical need for training and reorientation training workshops on biomedical waste. Only one-third participants had high level knowledge, and more than 10% scored poor for practices. Knowledge regarding color coding and ri