The goal of the project is to deliver the basis for an optimisation of the waste management at hospitals. Upon this, specific waste prevention measures are developed for three Viennese hospitals, and first practical steps towards implementation are initiated.
Summary
Waste prevention takes place primarily at the source of origin. Effecting waste prevention measures demand in first place knowledge of the composition of the articles applied. For this reason, methods and basics needed for the analysis of waste origin are enhanced, and, at the same time implemented in three Viennese hospitals (Lainz Hospital, Socio-medical Centre Baumgartner Höhe, Gottfried v. Preyer’s Children Hospital). A crucial delivery of the project is the possibility offered to perform quantitative and financial evaluation of waste prevention potentials and of the corresponding saving measures.
The project consists of two phases. In a first step, the base for constructing an input-output analysis is worked out. The results obtained serve the measures derived together with the environmental teams of the hospitals and the concrete implementation projects launched.
In the first project phase, an input-output analysis is developed. The latter links data of article consumption from the cost control with data of their composition and disposal. This way, the path of an article from its purchase up to the disposal can be traced. Considering consumption data from 2002, the 3.500 most representative short-life articles are selected. The data on these articles are delivered by the hospitals. Within samplings at the location, composition data and disposal paths of articles and packaging are determined. Furthermore, medical supplies are sampled towards PVC contents, and the latter is determined. The adjusted software module („The Connector“) enables calculation of the waste amounts and composition specific for any single hospital, based on the concrete article consumption.
In the second project phase, waste prevention projects are developed, and their implementation is initiated. Input-output analysis outcome and conclusions are presented and discussed at a number of workshops at the hospitals. As additional support for prospective projects, national and international best-practice examples are protrayes. Finally, project ideas are generated within small work groups. This way, by means of the input-output analysis, for each hospital key action priorities could be identified, and project ideas could be specified. Within this process, the interdisciplinary environmental teams have been granted an essential role, outlining the project effects for each professional group.
Information and motivation of all concerned is crucial for the success of environmental projects. A variety of folders and a poster have been prepared prior to project launch, so to announce the project goals and the method of the NABKA project to the staff, and afterwards, to enable all involved persons to approach the results.
