Análise da geração de resíduos de serviços de saúde no setor de emergência do Hospital Regional do Oeste em Santa Catarina

Abstract

Generated in all human or animal health care establishments, the Residues of Health Services (RHS) represent a problematic issue for the environmental sanitation in many Brazilian cities. Considering that this type of residue may bring risks to public health and to the environment, it is very important for its management to occur in an adequate way. With the purpose of discussing and highlighting the theme, the present study, divided in two methodological phases – weighing quantification and direct observation –, had as its objective to analyze the generation of RHS in the emergency room of the Western Regional Hospital (WRH) in Chapecó, state of Santa Catarina. With prevalence in the residue generation of Group A (infectious), the results indicate an average generation of 0,1474 kg/user/day in the autumn period and of 0,0811 kg/user/day in the winter period. Such a fact leads to the conclusion that seasonality does not influence on the quality or quantity of the RHS generation, becoming evident, in this way, that the generation of residues is associated with the type of adopted proceedings in patient care and adequate management. Moreover, by identifying deficiency in three important phases in the RHS management – segregation, identification and internal packaging -, it was possible to propose measures of adequacy for the locus of the empirical research and for other health establishments that may use this study as basis.