The EHS Management Issues of Public Hospitals

Abstract

Hospitals are established and operated for providing healthcare services to physically and mentally unhealthy human beings. Such facilities should therefore demonstrate high quality Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) practices. Unfortunately, the situation in most of the public hospitals in the developing countries like Pakistan is pathetic and prone to sickening the healthy visitors rather than curing. The objective of this study was to investigate the existing EHS practices in some of the local hospitals and develop a generic operational manual for improved and sustained EHS practices in a public hospital. In order to setup the bench mark, a private hospital was selected and literature from the hospitals all around the developed world was reviewed. A gap analysis was performed to evaluate the existing situation. In addition a review of EHS issues was done via personal visits and randomly interviewing management and staff of the hospitals to understand the difference between claims and practices. Results reveal that EHS is not a priority area in public hospitals and thus hospitals are propagating sickness along with provision of healthcare. The generic manual proposed as a result of this investigation, addresses most of the EHS issues and suggests most economical and effective solutions to enhance the hospital image as a health facility. Chapter one of the manual is ‘EHS and Hospital Planning’ which covers the issues concerned with initial planning of the hospital. Chapter two is ‘The EHS Management System’ which covers the matters related to EHS policy, EHS department, role and responsibilities, training, communication and monitoring. Chapter three is ‘Fire Safety and Emergency Response’ which covers procedures when fire is discovered. Chapter four is ‘Biological Safety’ which covers lab procedures. Chapter five is ‘Waste Management and Disposal’ which deals with different types of hospital wastes along with their proper categorization, collection xii and disposal. Chapter six is ‘General Safety’ which deals with EHS issues related to the daily functions of the hospital. While the real test of this manual can only be seen during practice and several modifications may be required, this may prove a first step in the right direction.