The Covid-19 epidemic has presented healthcare professionals with several issues, including the need to restructure healthcare and the medical waste increase. During the Covid-19 outbreak, healthcare institutions confronted several significant management issues. The necessity to rethink patient care models in real-time has been one of the most difficult problems. Physicians, nurses, and other professionals have established a suitable treatment model and room design due to the infection’s high contagiousness and severity (Choi et al., 2021). Protecting the physical and emotional well-being of frontline workers is a related problem. Aside from the risk of getting the virus, frontline personnel must deal with a great deal of emotional stress, which some may find overwhelming.
Hospital policies have evolved as a result of this issue. For instance, the usage of internal networks as well as regular consultations between the departments, increased greatly (Choi et al., 2021). External contact with the media, governmental decision-makers and other hospitals were crucial. The epidemic has expedited the use of information technology to increase the system’s interconnection and promote real-time data transmission (Ng et al., 2020). Hospitals have also engaged in cross-training and redeployment. Surgical nurses, for example, worked in a hospital, nursing assistants aided a cleaning crew, and even returning college students completed online training and worked in nutrition services.
In close connection with these developments, there has been a rise in medical waste. This issue arose due to the increase in protective equipment usage (Das et al., 2021). Its inappropriate disposal can lead to increased infection, particularly in unprotected garbage pickers, which can subsequently transmit the virus unknowingly across their community (Das et al., 2021). Transferring hospital trash to temporary processing centers before waste disposal centers have become the best option. To avoid the risk of future infection, contaminated feces created by Covid-19 patients has been collected and kept separately in several countries (Das et al., 2021). The pandemic impact on restructuring healthcare and managing the increase of medical waste should be acknowledged and considered.
References
Choi, H., Chatterjee, P., Lichtfouse, E., Martel, J. A., Hwang, M., Jinadatha, C., & Sharma, V. K. (2021). Classical and alternative disinfection strategies to control the COVID-19 virus in healthcare facilities: a review. Environmental Chemistry Letters, 19(3), 1945-1951.
Das, A. K., Islam, M. N., Billah, M. M., & Sarker, A. (2021). COVID-19 pandemic and healthcare solid waste management strategy–A mini-review. Science of the Total Environment, 778, 1-6.
Ng, K., Poon, B. H., Kiat Puar, T. H., Shan Quah, J. L., Loh, W. J., Wong, Y. J. & Raghuram, J. (2020). COVID-19 and the risk to health care workers: a case report. Annals of Internal Medicine, 172(11), 766-767.