護理臨床單位感染性醫療廢棄物分類之改善專案

A Project to Improve the Classification of Infectious Medical Waste in Clinical Nursing Units

本專案旨在探討護理臨床單位感染性醫療廢棄物分類不當之原因，經小組實際至垃圾場查核各單位所分類好的感染性廢棄物，發現有些為一般垃圾，卻被放置到感染性廢棄物中，造成感染性廢棄物的量不實的增加。分析主要原因為：護理人員不知每公斤感染性廢棄物的處理費用、每日產生的量及在分類認知方面亦不足；另外垃圾桶的設備不足及特殊單位對醫療廢棄物均視為感染性廢棄物的政策錯誤。故透過辦理醫療廢棄物分類認知教育、建立每日感染性廢棄物產量報告、增加換藥車和治療車上感染性廢棄物垃圾桶設備，及改變特殊單位醫療廢棄物全部丟入感染性垃圾桶之政策。使得平均一日原有十公斤不屬於感染性廢棄物的量降為三公斤，進而減少感染性垃圾處理費用之支出。The purpose of this project was to improve the classification of infectious medical waste in clinical nursing units. According to the report from the team members of this project, they discovered that some of the general garbage was thrown into infectious wasteyards. These problems caused the amount of the infectious medical waste growing up. Therefore, the project team started to analysize this problem. They found that the major problems were mostly owing to nurses’ lack of knowledge of the cost of infectious waste disposal per kilogram and daily quantity of infectious waste. The nurses were not aware of the classification of infectious medical waste either. The equipment was not enough and some departments practiced wrong strategies. Through the in-service education, establishing a requtar report of daily infectious waste quantity, adding equipments in dressing change cart and treatment cart, and changing the strategies of classification of infectious medical waste. The amount of infecti- ous medical waste decreased from 10 kilograms to 3 kilograms per day, and the expense of classification of infectious medical waste also reduced.