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20750

Assessment of Essential Environmental Health Standards in some Health Care Settings in Alexandria, Egypt

Article

Last updated: 22 Jan 2023

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Abstract

Background and Objective: Health-care-associated infections (HAI) cause severe loss in health sector resources worldwide. Application of appropriate environmental health standards within the health care setting (HCS) can significantly reduce the transmission of these infections. Methods: This study were conducted in Alexandria with the objective of assessing the environmental health standards in some HCS in order to identify the degree of compliance with the guidelines set by the World Health Organization (WHO) and with the infection control measures set by the Ministry of Health (MOH), for the purpose of identifying major areas that require improvement within the health care sector. Ten hospitals were randomly selected in Alexandria Governorate to constitute the study sample: five hospitals were belonging to the private sector and five were public ones. Data collection were conducted using an assessment checklist pre-designed by the WHO, in addition to the chemical and bacteriological analysis of 30 water samples collected from the 10 hospitals. Results: The results of the study revealed the absence of a water quality monitoring system within the HCS, poor maintenance in the plumbing system, lack of sufficient handwashing facilities, absence of suitable puncture-proof containers for sharp waste collection, inadequate laundry and catering services, absence of a High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter, and a pressure gradient in all operating theaters and poor vector control especially in public hospitals. According to the WHO checklist, scores for hospital water supply (quality and quantity), water facilities, excreta disposal, health care waste management, laundry, food storage and preparation, vector control and the HCS construction and management were 69%, 62.5%, 63%, 72%, 64%, 89%, 78%, 63% and 44%, respectively. It is worth mentioning that at 95% level of significance, there was no statistical difference between the scores obtained by private hospitals and those obtained by public ones. Conclusion: Improvement is required in all hospitals and recommended some corrective measures.

DOI

10.21608/jhiph.2009.20750

Keywords

Environmental Health Standards, Excreta Disposal, Health-Care-Associated Infections (HAI), Health Care Setting (HCS), Health Care Waste Management, High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) Filter, Infection control, Laundry, Vector control, water supply

Authors

First Name

Rim

Last Name

Hussein

MiddleName

Abd El-Hamid

Affiliation

Department of Environmental Health (Division of Environmental Chemistry and Biology), High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt

Email

rimahamid@yahoo.com

City

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Orcid

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Volume

39

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

4128

Issue Date

2009-01-01

Receive Date

2018-12-06

Publish Date

2009-01-01

Page Start

167

Page End

205

Print ISSN

2357-0601

Online ISSN

2357-061X

Link

https://jhiphalexu.journals.ekb.eg/article_20750.html

Detail API

https://jhiphalexu.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=20750

Order

11

Type

Original Article

Type Code

511

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Journal of High Institute of Public Health

Publication Link

https://jhiphalexu.journals.ekb.eg/

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Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023