Awareness and management of hospital waste in developing countries: A case study in Thailand

Hospitals and medical health centers are places to diffuse disease. Infectious situations at hospitals should be a primary concern. Hospital waste may cause many things to be at risk and lost, including human life, environmental health and funds. Thailand is a country that has been very active in the field of healthcare industries during the past ten years. Currently, there is no research that covers hospital waste management programs in the Thai healthcare industries. Therefore, this researcher has conducted a study in "Awareness and Management of Hospital Waste in Developing Countries: A Case Study in Thailand," This study includes four objectives: (1) to examine the status of hospital waste management and assessments of the hospital waste management process in Thai healthcare industries: (2) to identify the factors affecting the assessment of hospital waste management in Thailand: (3) to compare the standard criteria for hospital waste management in Europe, the United States and developing countries, such as Thailand: and (4) to recommend a course of action for improving hospital waste management in Thailand.;This research is based on data collected from surveys. The population used to collect data consists of all hospitals located in the Bangkok Metropolitan area that have registered with the Ministry of Public Health and are still operating. The sample population is 55 hospitals. The data will be analyzed using descriptive statistics in order to explain the general characteristics of hospitals and information regarding organization characteristics used to assess the hospital waste management programs. The research will look at frequency distribution and present information in terms of percentages. To test the research hypothesis, the researchers will test for factors that affect assessments of hospital waste management programs using the Multiple Regression Statistic Method.;The results show that most hospitals located in the Bangkok Metropolitan area have hospital waste management programs. For those hospitals that have hospital waste management programs, generally their program is not quite comprehensive. There are two factors that affect the score of comprehensive hospital waste management programs: (1) type of hospital, and (2) knowledge level of participant staff and employees. These factors relate to the score of comprehensive hospital waste management programs in Thailand. This relationship directly follows from the scores of the comprehensive hospital waste management programs, using a statistical significance of .05.