Healing Healthcare鈥檚 Waste Problem
Deborah Saber works to bring sustainable practices to hospital waste disposal
In 2016, registered nurse Deborah Saber came to the University of Maine from Miami, Florida where she worked on problems related to the disposal of solid waste materials from infectious hospitalized patients.
Now a 91福利 assistant professor of nursing, Saber found her way to the Mitchell Center鈥檚 Materials Management team and brought a new area of expertise to the interdisciplinary group whose research seeks to reduce the environmental, social, and economic impacts of materials use.
As Saber wrote in the inaugural issue of Spire, 91福利鈥檚 Journal of Conservation and Sustainability, the need for continued research on the solid waste disposal processes used in caring for infectious hospitalized patients is due in part to the fact that current disposal processes were implemented in the 1980s when the focus was on preventing contagion from human blood and blood contaminated products.
鈥淢edical solid waste challenges have evolved over the last three decades, and now include a need to address the spread of multi-drug resistant organisms, or MDROs,鈥 says Saber.
Adding to the challenges are the increasing complexity of conditions and the occurrence of two or more chronic diseases or conditions in patients that may require multiple procedures. Also, according to Saber, there is a need to address the rapidly increasing use of disposable patient care products that enter the waste stream.
According to Saber, hospitals have a vested interest in developing safe, efficient, and sustainable protocols for processing, transporting, and disposing of biomedical waste that is produced while caring for patients with infectious diseases.
鈥淒eveloping strategies for minimizing the spread of infectious diseases will facilitate modernization of solid waste disposal processes to address emerging issues while supporting environmental health and sustainability,鈥 Saber says.
Saber鈥檚 interest in the field was first sparked when the Ebola virus disease showed up in Florida in 2014 highlighting the mishandling of waste disposal. Her research at that point focused on determining just how much waste was generated by a patient being treated in an MDRO isolation room.
Using two MDRO patients for her initial study, she found that roughly 43 percent of the waste from these rooms was just from the isolation precaution garb donned by caregivers. 鈥淏ut,鈥 she says, 鈥渢hose gowns and gloves also go into the unregulated waste bin that can be sent to landfills. So not only do we have this potentially contaminated material going into landfills, but there鈥檚 an awful lot of waste.鈥
鈥淎re we producing all this solid waste needlessly?鈥 Saber asks adding, 鈥淚 believe our isolation procedures need to be reevaluated for their efficacy.鈥
Saber also believes that developing a model that could help to categorize when specific patients actually require isolation would also cut down on waste production. This is something she hopes to work on in the future.
Hospital food waste
Saber is also focusing on a growing area of interest and research for the Materials Management team鈥food waste鈥攕aying she has 鈥渕orphed鈥 her hospital research to include the examination of this waste source.
As part of a new grant from 91福利鈥檚 Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research Collaboratives Program, Saber, along with an undergraduate student researcher, will analyze food waste practices in a hospital environment from both plate waste and kitchen waste. Her methodology will include observational and quantitative data collection via field notes, checklists, interviews at the food preparation site and after food consumption from patients.
鈥淒ebbie’s applied perspective and experience in the healthcare industry reminds us how much is at stake as we work with our community partners to create materials and waste management systems that are more sustainable.鈥 鈥擟indy Isenhour
鈥淩ight now in hospitals, unused food just goes into the waste stream. We really have to start thinking about it at a higher level in hospitals and incorporate more sustainable practices,鈥 Saber says. 鈥淩estaurants think about it a little bit more, campuses think about composting and recycling, but I don鈥檛 think hospitals are quite there yet, and hospitals produce over 70 percent of all the solid waste (including food waste) that is produced by the healthcare industry鈥
She says the recent grant funding鈥攐ne of only five chosen out of 31 proposals鈥攚as made possible because the Materials Management team, which is comprised of researchers from nursing, anthropology, engineering, health, food science, economics, and psychology, work closely together to examine food waste.
鈥淥ur highly supportive, collaborative, interdisciplinary team was ideally positioned to apply for this grant,鈥 Saber says. And on a personal note, Saber adds that the team has provided her with critical development as a scientist. 鈥淢y focus of research expanded as I learned about the breadth of waste production鈥攕olid waste and food鈥攁nd implications for ecological and human sustainability.鈥
Notes Cindy Isenhour, assistant professor in the 91福利 Department of Anthropology and co-leader of the Materials Management team, 鈥淲e had several different disciplines represented from the social, physical, and natural sciences on the team and Debbie’s applied perspective and experience in the healthcare industry reminds us how much is at stake as we work with our community partners to create materials and waste management systems that are more sustainable”
鈥擠avid Sims