Summary
Objective and Scope
In 2012, we audited Alberta Health Services’ systems to manage the handling and disposal of healthcare waste materials. For purposes of this report, the term “healthcare waste” includes biomedical and chemical waste as defined by AHS.
We made four recommendations in our July 2012 report. In 2015 we conducted follow-up work to assess whether these recommendations have been implemented.
Conclusion
Alberta Health Services has implemented all four recommendations.
AHS has:
- assigned the responsibility for oversight of healthcare waste at all AHS sites to its Linen and Environmental Services (LES) branch/function
- developed standardized waste management policies and procedures, and implemented monitoring and analysis of its compliance at AHS sites that produce large volume of healthcare waste
- developed an invoice verification process and started to implement it across large volume producing sites
- developed a process to assess the risk associated with the management of healthcare waste at contracted sites