Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology- Delhi (IIT-D) have thrown light on how hospitals can select a sustainable medical waste disposal firm. Researchers say that the hospitals, which often encounter the difficulty in disposing their medical waste in a hygienic and sustainable way, can utilize a decision support framework proposed in their study.

The research study shows the path to facilitate the hospitals with a real-time decision support framework considering numerous criteria and constraints for the selection of healthcare waste disposal (HCW) firm(s).

This study identifies several key success factors from literature and field survey for selecting the best healthcare waste disposal firm. Findings reveal that experience of the firm, technology for disposal and waste collection infrastructure acts as a cause in selecting a healthcare waste disposal firm.

The study undermines the ‘cost factor’ as the only determining criterion for the selection of HCW disposal firms. The study concludes that the risk management policy of the HCW firms has the highest significance in the selection and the cost charged by the HCW firm has the lowest significance when the HCW is outsourced to a single firm for disposal.