Community-Based Intervention to Increase Usage of Medication Disposal Bins

Abstract

Despite the existence of medical waste disposal sites, many patients do not know how to discard their unused and expired medications. The goal of this project is to assess health care providers’ knowledge regarding proper medication disposal (PMD) and to measure the effectiveness of a brief provider informational intervention regarding PMD. Changes in knowledge were evaluated using paper pre and post surveys. The surveys were administered anonymously before and after the presentation. Principal findings: A total of 55 healthcare providers (Clinic A n = 25, Clinic B n = 28) received the PMD presentation. 52 (95%) completed the pre and post surveys. Pre-intervention knowledge of PMD was higher in Clinic B where there was an existing medication disposal box (92% accuracy) compared to Clinic B which did not have a medical disposal bin (52% accuracy). Surveys results showed improvement in 36% of Clinic A participants and 14.3% of Clinic B participants (p value = 0.0086). Based on these findings, we can conclude that the presence of a medication disposal bin is positively correlated with provider knowledge regarding PMD. This may be used to encourage the institution of medication disposal bins in more health centers and an increase in medical staff knowledge of the practice.