management of medical waste using reverse logistics
Budget: ₹1,500 – ₹12,500 INR
This study considered all possible MWGC(Medical waste generation centers), including existing and temporary hospitals (EHs and THs), clinics, laboratories, residential areas (RAs), and cemeteries. Also, several functions that calculate the amount of generated waste in each MWGC are presented.
1. Proposing a model compatible with the condition of an epidemic outbreak or pandemic.
2.Considering the cost and risk associated with handling IMW(infectious medical waste) in minimizing objective functions.
3.Presenting an objective function for reducing the possible severe harms caused by uncollected waste in various MWGCs regarding their importance.
4.
Designing functions that calculate the amounts of generated waste regarding the parameters of the current epidemic outbreak.
5.
Considering all potential centers that generate IMW, especially laboratories, patients quarantined at home, and cemeteries.
6.
Evaluating the presented model by optimizing a real case problem.
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3. Problem description
In order to design a reverse logistics model compatible with real conditions of the current pandemic and its outbreak in a specific region following assumptions and explanations are considered.
1.
Existing hospitals allocated a portion of their beds to the patients of COVID-19, and few temporary hospitals are established to meet the potential demand for beds.
2.
Few medical clinics are assigned for outpatient examinations of suspicious cases, so these centers generate IMW.
3.
Laboratories that can diagnose COVID-19 through testing kits and chest CT scans, also generate IMW.
4.
The treatment machine should have the efficacy inactivation Microbial Bacterial spores at least more than 6 log10. Due to that, the infectious waste of COVID-19 would be safe after being treated with Autoclave machine and could be buried with other waste.
5.
The patients diagnosed to be infected and are not in severe conditions are home quarantined. Since these patients also generate IMW, the health organization authorities asked families of these patients to separate their general waste from the waste generated by patients, so the collection and treatment of this waste would be easier. This waste is collected from RAs with a specified protocol. The authorities of the network are obliged to collect IMW of RAs and transport them to their related transfer stations, which are only used for transferring IMW of RAs to treatment centers, and then to one of the nearest treatment centers (Di Maria et al., 2020).
6.
Patients that are passed away due the COVID-19 are buried in cemeteries, and since their bodies still carry the virus, these centers generate IMW. This waste is transported to one of the nearest treatment centers.
According to the mentioned explanations, the proposed reverse logistics network for IMWC-19 is consists of three major parts. These parts are generation, treatment, and burial of IMW. The generation part is consist of different medical center and centers that are somehow related to COVID19 patients, all of which are called MWGC. These centers are EHs, THs, clinics, laboratories, RAs, and cemeteries, generating different amounts of waste. All of the collected waste from different centers are transported to the second part of the network, which is treatment centers so that they could get treated according to specific protocols. After the treatment process, the trace of the virus would be eliminated from the waste, and it will not cause the disease. There are few existing treatment centers (ETC) in the specific region, so the network authorities can facilitate them with new machines or establish temporary treatment centers (TTC) to meet the demand of the network for treating the surplus waste. The final part of the network is burring the treated waste in special landfills (SLs). The treated waste is sent to the special landfills to get buried according to the sanitation protocols. The structure of the network is illustrated in the below figure
1. Proposing a model compatible with the condition of an epidemic outbreak or pandemic.
2.Considering the cost and risk associated with handling IMW(infectious medical waste) in minimizing objective functions.
3.Presenting an objective function for reducing the possible severe harms caused by uncollected waste in various MWGCs regarding their importance.
4.
Designing functions that calculate the amounts of generated waste regarding the parameters of the current epidemic outbreak.
5.
Considering all potential centers that generate IMW, especially laboratories, patients quarantined at home, and cemeteries.
6.
Evaluating the presented model by optimizing a real case problem.
Go to:
3. Problem description
In order to design a reverse logistics model compatible with real conditions of the current pandemic and its outbreak in a specific region following assumptions and explanations are considered.
1.
Existing hospitals allocated a portion of their beds to the patients of COVID-19, and few temporary hospitals are established to meet the potential demand for beds.
2.
Few medical clinics are assigned for outpatient examinations of suspicious cases, so these centers generate IMW.
3.
Laboratories that can diagnose COVID-19 through testing kits and chest CT scans, also generate IMW.
4.
The treatment machine should have the efficacy inactivation Microbial Bacterial spores at least more than 6 log10. Due to that, the infectious waste of COVID-19 would be safe after being treated with Autoclave machine and could be buried with other waste.
5.
The patients diagnosed to be infected and are not in severe conditions are home quarantined. Since these patients also generate IMW, the health organization authorities asked families of these patients to separate their general waste from the waste generated by patients, so the collection and treatment of this waste would be easier. This waste is collected from RAs with a specified protocol. The authorities of the network are obliged to collect IMW of RAs and transport them to their related transfer stations, which are only used for transferring IMW of RAs to treatment centers, and then to one of the nearest treatment centers (Di Maria et al., 2020).
6.
Patients that are passed away due the COVID-19 are buried in cemeteries, and since their bodies still carry the virus, these centers generate IMW. This waste is transported to one of the nearest treatment centers.
According to the mentioned explanations, the proposed reverse logistics network for IMWC-19 is consists of three major parts. These parts are generation, treatment, and burial of IMW. The generation part is consist of different medical center and centers that are somehow related to COVID19 patients, all of which are called MWGC. These centers are EHs, THs, clinics, laboratories, RAs, and cemeteries, generating different amounts of waste. All of the collected waste from different centers are transported to the second part of the network, which is treatment centers so that they could get treated according to specific protocols. After the treatment process, the trace of the virus would be eliminated from the waste, and it will not cause the disease. There are few existing treatment centers (ETC) in the specific region, so the network authorities can facilitate them with new machines or establish temporary treatment centers (TTC) to meet the demand of the network for treating the surplus waste. The final part of the network is burring the treated waste in special landfills (SLs). The treated waste is sent to the special landfills to get buried according to the sanitation protocols. The structure of the network is illustrated in the below figure