Developing a Healthcare Waste Management Plan for your Healthcare Facility

Abstract

The scope of a facilities’ healthcare waste management plan is to ensure that waste management practices are consistent across all departments. The plan should integrate all aspects of managing waste, from avoidance and minimization, proper segregation and containment, safe handling, storage and transport, to treatment and disposal. It should clearly define roles and responsibilities of staff, guiding principles, as well as the requirements for training and awareness. It provides goals and targets to ensure ongoing improvements in all aspects of waste management, including the generation, handling, storage and disposal of all forms of waste. The allocation of resources also needs to be set out, in terms of finances, time, equipment and personnel. This document contains a template that can be used to create a Healthcare Waste Management Plan for your healthcare facility.