Six leading healthcare systems have formed the Healthier Hospitals Initiative to help speed the health care sector toward environmental sustainability. Using information technology and reducing the use of paper is part of a plan that includes everything from air conditioning to carpet purchasing.
The six systems – Advocate Health Care; Catholic Healthcare West; Hospital Corporation of America (HCA, Inc.); Kaiser Permanente; MedStar Health; and Partners Healthcare – introduced the Healthier Hospitals Agenda last, a document that outlines specific activities that hospitals can take to reduce their environmental footprint and improve health outcomes.
The goal is to prevent environment-related illness, create extraordinary environmental benefits, and save billions of dollars in health care expenses.
“Collectively, the healthcare sector can stimulate the marketplace to make more eco-friendly products available, and we can inform public policies that support and facilitate the transition to environmental sustainability,” stated John Messervy, director of capital and facility planning, Partners Healthcare in Boston. “These measures can greatly reduce the overall costs of health care, as well as help protect the health of our patients, staff and community.”
“Practicing good environmental stewardship is one way of fulfilling our role as healthcare providers to the communities we serve,” said Kathy Gerwig, vice-president for Workplace Safety and environmental stewardship officer, Kaiser Permanente. “A sector-wide approach to sustainability will provide the benefits of better health not just in one community, but to the entire nation—by reducing the overall disease burden of the population, and the enormous financial and human toll associated with it.”
Tenets of the Healthier Hospitals Agenda include the following:
Hospitals can demonstrate their support for the program by becoming a sponsoring organization, or by signing a pledge of endorsement, and participating in activities to implement the Healthier Hospital Agenda in their institutions. They can also participate in the on-line sharing of information and expertise and collaborate with other health care institutions to encourage and assist with sustainability efforts.
Three partner organizations – Health Care Without Harm, Practice Greenhealth, and The Center for Health Design—will provide expertise and technical assistance and will develop and implement training and other programs to help hospitals carry out the HHI agenda recommendations. Research conducted under the auspices of the program will be overseen by the Health Care Without Harm Research Collaborative, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Practice Greenhealth also recently recognized the Premier healthcare alliance and several of Premier member hospitals for their green leadership.
"As part of our Yes to Green program, in 2009 Premier recycled over 200,000 pounds of paper and more than 10,000 tons of computers and electronic products," said Gina Pugliese, RN, vice president of the Premier Safety Institute.
"Being a leader in our industry by setting the bar for environmentally sound business practices has successfully helped members of our alliance reduce greenhouse gas emissions; select safer and less toxic products; recycle floor coverings, lab solvents, and construction waste; purchase organically grown foods; and increase energy efficiency," said Susan DeVore, Premier's president and CEO.
