Medical Waste Management in the Middle East

Background

There are different categories of waste but medical waste is completely different from others. 100% treatment of medical waste is essential for public health because these waste materials carry hazardous substances which can be risky for humans. Medical waste includes radioactive substances, bacteria, viruses, chemicals, etc. To manage medical waste effectively, hospitals in middle east countries such as Arab Emirates, Oman, and Saudi Arabia implemented RFID based waste management system in the hospitals. RFID system divided waste management into three phases- sorted, transportation, and disposal of waste. The system ensures that medical waste in hospitals must be sorted in different categories, then transported separately to the approved location and disposed of with proper treatment. RFID solution help in following all the regulation and stop the misuse of medical waste.

Challenges

1. Classification and sorting of medical waste are important before treatment because each category of waste is disposed of separately. The classification and identification process in the manual waste management process is time-consuming and error-prone.

2. Medical waste is a potential risk for health workers who responsible for disposing of it. They are usually in close contact with medical waste which could infect them with viruses etc.

3. Manual process is not full proof, there is always some loophole in the data recording process. In the absence of an effective inspection system, many notorious people take advantage and do the grey marketing of waste products. This could be very harmful to people’s health.

4. There are more chances of human errors in the manual process. 

Solution

Chainway cooperated with hospitals in middle east countries to implement RFID based waste management system in hospitals. In the solution, different categories of waste are divided into different boxes and each box was associated with RFID tags. These tags contain complete information about the waste type, category, dispose location, etc. Chainway implemented its C 6000 mobile computer to scan these tags. All the data related to waste receiving, processing, put away, the work process was scan and stored in this mobile computer by an operator. Besides this, captured data was shared with the central database, so that waste management data could be updated in real-time. At the same time, vehicle GPS was integrated with the application, which helped in tracking the material during transportation.
 

Effects

1. RFID solution transforms the manual process into an intelligent waste identification process and ensures 100% accuracy with a fast process.

2. The garbage boxes can be scanned with zero touches that ensure the safety of health workers from harmful bacteria and viruses.

3. It is of great significance to monitor and manage medical waste in transportation, effectively preventing the misconduct of criminals, and further reducing the possibility of harm to society.

4. The information of each link of medical waste and related persons can be recorded in real-time. To contact the right one immediately when there is a problem. 

5. New system does not only records the medical waste but also records the data of the operator on duty. It helps in identifying the responsibility of workers.

PDA Configuration

 P/N: C6000

 Functions: NFC