| dc.description.abstract | Medical waste management in Kenya has been greatly affected by the country's elevated
production levels. The majority of medical facilities do not have an extensive medical waste
management system, or if they do, it does not handle waste thoroughly, and therefore is
detrimental to humans and the environment. This research focuses on health facilities’
management of medical waste in Kamukunji sub-county, assessing the specific problems of
medical waste management in that area. This was a study focusing on healthcare workers that
looks at their working conditions and habits. This study was an analytical cross-sectional study
design that used Fischer formula for sample size determination. Multistage sampling methods
for the selection of 10 health facilities and 141 study participants Before the actual data
collection, the questionnaires were pre-tested in one of the public health facilities in Starehe
Constituency (Casino Health centre) which was not sampled in the main study. Data was
entered, cleansed of errors, and statistically analyzed using SPSS (Version 26.0). Majority of
respondents (95.7%) use color to identify different types of medical waste with slightly less
than half (49.6%) using labelling, 88.7% store medical waste receptacles inside a health
facility, 90.8% had given a contractor to dispose some medical waste with 36.2% and 15.6%
of wastes are incinerated and burning respectively. Most of health facilities (39.0%) had daily
medical waste weighing less than 26kg with 34.8% and 12.1% weighing between 26-50 kg and
46-100 kg respectively, on observation, the quantity of health facility waste generated at most
of selected health facilities was approximately 15 kilograms to approximately 80 Kg. Pumwani
Maternity Hospital had the most quantity of medical waste (80Kg), with St Teresa’s Parish
Health Centre (50 Kg), Makkah Nursing Home (45 Kg) and the least from Bahati Health Center
(15 Kg) during the study period. Majority of respondents (87.2%) did not associate medical
wastes with various problems with 12.8% associated medical waste with accidents (55.6%),
diseases (27.8%), and drainage blockages (27.8%). The R Square was 0.746, indicating that
medical waste management was harmed by a lack of funding, insufficient logistics, a lack of
disposal sites, and a lack of understanding. This demonstrated a 74.6 percent variance in
healthcare waste management due to a lack of funding, insufficient logistical supply, a lack of
disposal site, and a lack of awareness. The remaining 25.4% implies that there were additional
issues affecting the healthcare waste management systems of the ten health facilities evaluated.
By explicitly identifying a given color with a certain category and its accompanying hazard,
segregation aids to safer waste processing. During the research period, Pumwani Maternity
Hospital created the most medical waste (80Kg) and Bahati Health Center generated the least
(15Kg). The study concludes that periodic updates in medical waste management are
necessary, as is refresher training for healthcare professionals and waste handlers. A safe and
hygienic system for the handling, segregation, collection, storage, transportation, treatment,
and disposal of medical waste should also be in place at every healthcare institution. According
to the report, Kenya's National Policy on Injection Safety and Medical Waste Management
should be followed by all medical institutions. The strategy aims to emphasize the need of
advocating for both the support and execution necessary to adequately manage healthcare
waste. Future research might focus on various technologies involved in the treatment and
disposal of this waste, or on increasing community knowledge about health care waste. | en_US |
