Page 17 - Q BULLETIN, Ministry of Health Malaysia, VOLUME 1, NO. 31 (SUPPLEMENT 1), JAN-DEC 2022

Q Bulletin, Volume 1, No. 31 (Supplement 1), Jan - Dec 2022
11 National QA Convention, 4 – 6 October 2022
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OP-03

Improving Waste Transportation Process at Columbia Asia Hospital Tebrau

Rahani Y,Mohd Shah Rizal AR, Nurzuriati S

Columbia Asia Hospital Tebrau, Johor

SELECTION OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT:
Manual handling of waste increased injuries to the operators, especially musculoskeletal pain. The operator
needs to push a 240L wheel bin of 50kg through a 30-meter distance at a high gradient slope of 1:8 (7.13%)
for 12 times/day. This overexertion routine causes injuries, slowing their movement and delaying waste
transportation. This study aims to improve operators’ safety and health and successively improve waste
transportation time.

KEY MEASURES FOR IMPROVEMENT:
The main indicator was the percentage of repetitive injuries amongst the same operators. The target was set at
0% for the repetition of injuries.

PROCESS OF GATHERING INFORMATION:
A prospective study was carried out from September 2021-February 2022. Two operators were given
questionnaires (Ergonomic Risk Assessment/ERA) to gather feedback. Transportation time was taken
throughout the study.

ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION:
ERA results showed that the percentage of repetitive injuries increased from 58.3% to 83.3%. Injuries include
neck pain, wrist/hand pain and lower back pain. The pain severity was reported on an average scale of 3.5
out of 5. The average time taken to transport waste was 20 minutes. The contributing factors identified were
pushing heavy wheel bin, high gradient slope, frequent pushing/day and long distances.

STRATEGIES FOR CHANGE:
Improvement was to re-engineer the mechanism of waste transportation using an innovative vehicle to reduce
the operator’s burden. All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) motor was acquired and re-engineered to fix innovated trolley
to allow two units of 2-wheels bin to be carried out per trip. The ATV is operated by the operator, provided
training to propel the vehicle effectively.

EFFECT OF CHANGE:
After the introduction of ATV, the ERA result successfully showed a reduction in injuries from 83.3% to 0%.
Time completion of waste transportation is faster at an average of 8-10 minutes.

THE NEXT STEP:
The design of this trolley and the light vehicle was introduced to our sister company, Columbia Asia Hospital
Iskandar Puteri, Johor, which is now planning to adopt our innovation.

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