Short summary

The purpose of the project is to generate knowledge about and identify areas of medicine waste within the clinic. The knowledge gained from the project will be used to develop a concept and initiate efforts to reduce medicine waste across the region's hospitals. The project will investigate areas of medicine waste in the departments of Odense University Hospital (OUH) in Svendborg and qualify the results at OUH Odense. The ultimate goal is to optimize and reduce consumption by reducing waste.

Rationale

The green transformation is highly prioritized in the Region of Southern Denmark. Odense University Hospital (OUH) has been designated as the lead in the pharmaceutical field, with a focus on reducing the climate and environmental footprint resulting from the use of medications in the region.

The region has estimated that the use of medications accounts for 25% of the total CO2 emissions from the hospital sector. Several potential areas for interventions regarding medications have already been identified. This project specifically targets the reduction of medicine waste in clinical departments.

Each medication room associated with a department has a bin for medication waste, which is disposed of as hazardous waste. Currently, there is visible medicine waste in various departments at OUH. However, both the content/types and the extent of the waste are currently unknown.

It is essential to identify the nature of the waste, including the quantity and the specific medications that are in surplus and are discarded due to factors such as expiration. This will enable immediate optimization and the development of specific interventions to reduce the amount of medicine waste. The knowledge and interventions from the project can subsequently be applied across departments in the rest of the region.

Description of the cohort

Not applicable.

Data and biological material

Medicine waste.