Sustainable Development Clinical Trial
Official title:
Recycling Potential in Endoscopy
The present trial is an observational prospective trial. The aim of the present study is to analyse the recycling potential in endoscopy units in hospitals and outpatient facilities. For this purpose, waste is collected for four weeks each at four locations (two inpatient and two outpatient facilities). Questions such as quantity and quality of garbage will be addressed and compared between the different facilities.
Current considerations by various professional societies are developing theoretical concepts with the goal of greenhouse-neutral endoscopy operation. However, the scientific data situation here is expandable. One study calculated an extrapolation for the US based on the mean value of weight and volume of a total of 278 endoscopies in five days at two hospitals. However, a differentiated consideration of various parameters such as examination type and the location of the endoscopy (outpatient vs. inpatient) was missing here. In different endoscopic departments waste will be weighed. Those are two hospitals (university and non-university) and two outpatient endoscopy units, each for four weeks. The waste will be divided into residual waste, paper and plastic in order to record the possible recycling potential. In addition, it will be investigated how great the savings potential is by avoiding disposable products (gowns, endoscopes). The present study addresses the following end points: - Parts of waste per examination in g (residual waste, plastic, paper). - Savings potential through reusable items (e.g. gowns) - Comparison of disposable vs. reusable endoscopes - Descriptive description of the amount of waste at the different locations - Statistical comparison of the amount of waste in the different locations - Statistical comparison of the amount of waste per examination - Statistical comparison of the amount of waste between out-patient and in-patient ;