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Where the used intra uterine contraceptive device IUCD380A can be disposed?

Technically it has to be destroyed in the incinerator of the Bio Medical Waste Plant in your region. If you do not have one, then the other alternative is Deep Burial in the Ground. 

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how destroy bmw

You destroy BMW by Incineration of some and Sterilising for plastic /Glass

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what is biomedical waste

Bio Medical Waste are the discarded material after use in Hospitals, Clinics, Pathology Labs etc. For example the empty Medicine bottle, the cotton swab after it is used to treat a patient, a syringe after giving an injection etc. All these discarded material are known as Bio Medical waste and have to be treated specially to avoid spread of contagious disease.

Does that help you undestand about Bio Medical Waste (BMW)

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Bio Medical Waste during #covid #corona

Bio Medical Waste processed by plants have increased 5-6 times their average monthly benchmark. Most of the increase is in the ‘Red’ category. 

There is a huge pressure from the National Green Tribunal and the Supreme Court to track and ensure all these infected waste is processed as per the laid down rules and do not find their way back into the market for recycling.

With no proper data being aggregated the Central Pollution Board (CPCB) launched their own app to collect data. To comply with this requirement, the plants still need to weigh the bags and log them at the site of generation and at the plant before processing. 

With our #EWP solution we were able to help the plant. The HCF weigh their own bags and keep them ready for collection. This information is now available to the Plant with data on Bag color, weight, bag number and time. The same set of information gets updated when the bag reaches the plant. The Driver copies the data from his app and punches it into the CPCB app. 

We were very happy to see the drivers comfortably use the CPCB app by leveraging on the solution they have been using for so many days.

These are the moments which convinces us that we are on the right track in building an easy to use solution which is accepted by the users and at the same time provides all the data required to track and comply with the rules of the CPCB.

The plant owners do not have to give excuses for not being able to comply and also benefits with zero complaints from the employees for using the apps.

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What are the expectations of a Bio Medical Plant Owner

I firmly believe in building solutions that would benefit the customer. In our present offering, the customer are the people who operate a Bio Medical Waste Plant. 

The operations have quite a few challenges today

1] Variable Costs:- Salary and Fuel are the biggest chunk of the cost. They can be reduced by optimising the operations of the Incinerator, the vehicle route and a system driven work culture. In the absence of any tools, the dependency on individuals is very high. 

2] Onboarding Health Care Facilities: - In the absence of a streamlined process, there are many challenges like the HCF refusing to sign-up or pay. Informal contracts or no contracts at all.

3] Containers :- These are a challenge as it adds to the cost of the HCF and they do not understand the need for them.

4] Waste Segregation:- This is a big issue as segregation at source is not happening in most locations. To add to the problem, general waste is also added to this infectious waste.

 5] 48 hour compliance:- The BMW act states all BMW waste need to be processed within 48 hrs of them being generated. A plant which has a 500 HCF cannot monitor this manually every day. In the absence of automated data processing, this compliance is impossible to implement.

6] Re Scanning:- With a large number of bags arriving together at the plant every day, re-scanning the infectious bags at the plant is a challenge.

I believe that the plant owner can reduce costs by atleast 25-30% by introducing a system driven operations. It will also improve collections dramatically. The challenge is for them to be convinced it is possible and also convincing the team it is for their benefit.

I would love to hear if the BMW plants have other challenges which I have not understood or missed adding above.

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5 posts!

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Is Software a Loss or Profit for the business of Waste Management

As I meet various plant owners across the country I get a lot of mixed emotions :-)

I will try to put them across as four different types:

1] Philosophical Statement

   Bar Coding is not required, doctors dont want it and it is a headache. Does not service the purpose of tracking.

2] Never say No to anyone

My Billing Software team built a bar code solution for me at no cost and its working fine.

3] Why should I pay so much.

I can get a free bar code software from the Internet, why should I pay for it

4] I will not tell you about my business

Charge me one time for the software and I will call you if I need any changes to be made.

There is a huge gap between our focus on User Experience and the customers wants. I think the next few quarters would be spent on bridging the gap between us.

We had thought we will introduce concepts like customer satisfaction, Employee training, improve productivity etc. But there are ground challenges in the market being ready to absorb all this new fangled concepts. Even if the promoters buy in to the concept we still need to get the local Staff to believe in them.

All this effort at a price acceptable to the market.

Here I hope to get inspirtation from products like Amazon, Flipkart and AWS without borrowing their model of cash burn.

Long way to go..............

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Compliance for Pickup and Transportation Process

The Act clearly states that we need to track all vehicles in real time on a google map (Or equivalent). Also, the Bags/Containers must be tracked from the Bar Code Generation, when and where the bags were picked up, which vehicle transported it and for how long. The information collected must be stored for 5 years and be available to any government authority on request.

The process to follow:

Driver logs the start of the Trip

Driver logs the time and location of reaching each HCF

Driver logs the time, location, weight and bag code being picked up at each HCF

The challenge is the time taken by driver to scan all bags in a large HCF. We have devised a solution where the driver can complete large HCF with more than 10 bags in less than 5 minutes

The Driver reaches the plant and logs the end of the Trip.

The Plant rescans all the bags brought in by the Vehicle  

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Compliance for signing contract with HCF

Onboarding Compliance Process in Common Treatment Facility

A CTF and an HCF need to have a formal contract as proof of proper disposal of Bio Medical Waste. The process must be transparent to everyone. An ideal process for signing up would have the following steps:

CTF shares the agreement with the HCF on a stamp paper with information like 

 Commercials

Address /Doctor/ License Number/ Phone etc

Type of HCF, No. of beds etc

While receiving the payment, the Salesperson will generate the HCF bar code which will be part of the contract  

The payment information is captured by the Salesperson

The information about the payment is shared with the account team

The information about the new HCF is shared with the operations team

The operation team allocates the HCF to a Route/Vehicle

The Operation teams makes a visit to the HCF to complete

Introduction of staff for Bio Medical Waste handling in the HCF

The training on segregation of waste in four colors,

Identify the collection/ Storage area in the HCF,

Weighing scale Operations (in case HCF scans their own waste),

Accessing data for the information on their pickup and disposal

Supply of bags/containers/ Bar code Stickers (from market or CTF)

Using the HCF Android Application

 The process of pickup by the Vehicle starts after these visits.  

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A Recap of BMW 2016

There are broadly four categories today and they are color coded. Yellow and Red are Bags while Blue and White are containers.

Yellow bags are for Organic waste and they are taken to the Incinerator directly

Red Bags are for plastic waste used during treatment and they are sterilised, shredded and recycled.

The Blue Containers are for Glass and Metal waste, which are sterilised

The White Containers are for Sharp objects, which are sterilised.

These bags and containers are bought by the HCF directly from the market or from the CTF. These are individual commercial contracts between the HCF and the CTF.

A quick recap of the Bio Medical Waste Management process

Waste Generators: - HCF

The HCF is legally bound to conduct the following steps:

Procure Bags from CTF or open market for storing the waste

Procure Bar codes from CTF to identify each bag as a unique number

Ensure waste is segregated in the four colour coded bags 

Staff must be trained and certified twice annually as per the law

The Staff managing the BMW must be vaccinated as per the law

Segregated Waste must be stored in a secure storage area which is accessible by the staff of the CTF when they come to collect

HCF with over 30 beds has to scan and weigh their bags/containers and keep them ready for pickup. (The CTF will provide the tools)

Sign a commercial contract with the CTF

Submit the Annual report for license renewal along with a certificate of compliance from the CTF

Waste Collector - CTF

The CTF is licensed by the CPCB to collect waste from all HCF’s in their area

A special Vehicle with appropriate storage areas is used for the pickup

Yellow Bags must be collected and disposed within 48 hrs of the sealing of the Bag

Driver/Attendant in the vehicle visits each HCF, scans and weighs the Bags/containers

Vehicle route and real time information should always be available  to PCB and the CTF

CTF must provide an online report as per Annexure VII of the BMW 2016 Act

Bio Medial Waste Plant – CTF

The Plant is a part of the CTF operation

Vehicles after collecting the Waste from the HCFs bring it back to the Plant

The Bags are all rescanned and weighed again

The information is uploaded to the dashboard and any variance between pickup and received both in number of bags or weight of bags is highlighted in the report

The Yellow bags are incinerated

The Red, Blue and White bags/containers are sterilised and processed

Plastic waste is shredded and recycled

All other waste is sent to the landfill

The plant must submit reports to HCF, SPCB and CPCB every month, quarter and year on the compliance of waste treatment       

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The Bio Medical Act of 2016 - BMW 2016

Introduction:

The government of India initiated a formal process for managing Bio Medical Waste in the year 1998. Over the years it has updated its rules based on the feedback from various stakeholders and the real-world feedback from stakeholders. You can browse the actual acts here:

1] Bio-medical Waste Management Rules, 2016 (Amended) - 10.05.2019

2] Bio-medical Waste Management Rules, 2016 (Amended) - 16.03.2019

3]  Bio-medical Waste Management Rules, 2016 (Amended) - 19.02.2019

4]  Bio-medical Waste Management Rules, 2016 (Amended) - 16.03.2018

5]  Bio-medical Waste Management Rules, 2016  

6]  Bio-medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998

                    The philosophy of the BMW Act is 

“The Generator of Waste Pays for its disposal”.

The Government has also moved to a model of having at least one Common Bio Medical Waste Treatment and Disposal Facilities (CBMWTD) in a radius of 75 to 150 Kms. These Common Treatment Facilities (CTF) are licensed by the Government under the BMW Act.

The BMW eco system has the following players:

Central Pollution Control Board – CPCB – They are the policy forming body and also review the compliance on the ground through physical inspection

State Pollution Control Board – SPCB – They are the licensing and monitoring institution in the state. They provide the permissions and resources for operation and are also responsible for monitoring the compliances from both CTF and HCF

Common Treatment Facility – CTF- These are the plants which have received licenses to Collect, Transport and Process Bio Medical Waste in a given area.  

Health Care Facilities – HCF- These are Private and Public institutions licensed by the government to provide medical service. Eg. Hospitals, Primary Health Care Centres, Clinics, Labs, Veterinary Hospitals, Ayurvedic clinics, Unani clinics etc.

The HCF has a commercial contract with the CTF for availing of their services.