IIT Delhi shows way to hospitals struggling with medical waste

The study shows the path to facilitate the hospitals with a real-time decision support framework considering numerous criteria and constraints for the selection of healthcare waste disposal firm(s). 

A research led by Surya Prakash Singh from the Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi, has thrown light on how hospitals can select a sustainable medical waste disposal company. Researchers said the hospitals that often face difficulty in disposing medical waste in a hygienic and sustainable way can utilise a decision support framework proposed in their study. 

The research paper titled ‘Selection of Healthcare Waste Disposal Firms Using a Multi-Method Approach’ has been published in the ‘Journal of Environmental Management’. 

The study shows the path to facilitate the hospitals with a real-time decision support framework considering numerous criteria and constraints for the selection of healthcare waste disposal firm(s). 

“The aim of the study is to propose a hybrid multi-criteria decision support framework integrated with mathematical model to tackle the issue of safe disposal of hazardous and infectious healthcare waste. The study shows a direction to the hospital management in selecting economically, socially and environmentally sustainable healthcare waste disposal firm. Literature of the last twenty-five years has been carefully sifted through for leads in the identification of the selection criteria,” said Surya Prakash Singh.  

Th study identifies 10 key factors from literature and field survey for selecting the best healthcare waste disposal firm. Findings reveal that experience of the firm, technology for disposal and waste collection infrastructure acts as a cause in selecting a healthcare waste disposal firm.  

The study undermines the ‘cost factor’ as the only determining criterion for the selection of HCW disposal firms. The study concludes that the risk management policy of the HCW firms has the highest significance in the selection and the cost charged by the HCW firm has the lowest significance when the HCW is outsourced to a single firm for disposal. 

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