Infection Control Today
By Kelly M. Pyrek
While it provides the great capacity to heal, the healthcare industry is a sizable consumer of natural resources. According to Practice Greenhealth, the healthcare sector uses more than 800 trillion Btu of energy annually, costing $6.5 billion each year. Hospitals that have as many as 500-plus beds can use up to almost 300,000 gallons of water annually, and they can generate more than 6,500 tons of waste per day, costing $15 billion each year for solid waste disposal alone. There’s no dispute that the healthcare sector, comprising 17 percent of the gross national product (GNP), leaves a significant environmental footprint.
In this article, we’ll look at how healthcare facilities can engage in environmentally preferred purchasing, reduce chemical use, actively seek alternative sustainable products, engage in green building, reduce consumption of energy, water and raw materials, minimize waste, engage in recycling programs, transition to renewable energy sources; eliminate incineration, and improve transportation strategies. These activities, however, hinge upon whether or not a healthcare institution makes sustainability an organizational priority with support that trickles down from the C-suite level. Experts say that sustainability must be integrated into all areas of the organization and its activities, internally and externally through leadership, education, and accountability and engagement in public policy and community education. Additionally, hospital leadership must encourage and incorporate sustainability as an essential element in the culture of the organization…
Strategies for Going Green
There are a number of ways that hospitals can implement environmentally friendly activities:
Address waste. Practice Greenhealth makes the following suggestions for waste minimization, segregation, and recycling in hospitals:
- Establish a “green team” comprised of nurses, administrators, environmental services staff and others who are responsible for waste handling and occupational and environmental health and safety.
- Conduct a waste audit by examining what comes into the hospital and what (and how it) leaves. Observe red bag waste, solid waste, food waste, laboratory chemicals, and chemotherapeutic and pathological waste. Use the results of the audit to identify wasteful practices and develop a waste management strategy that incorporates waste reduction, reuse, and recycling measures. Segregating the waste at the point of generation, before treatment or disposal, is critical.
- Educate all hospital staff about the safe and appropriate segregation of waste for recycling, reuse and disposal. Cardboard, glass, office paper, cans, newspapers, magazines, and certain plastics are commonly recycled. Place signage at the point of waste disposal (trash cans, garbage bins, recycling containers, battery capturing receptacles) to reinforce the directions for proper segregation and disposal.
- Combine waste management strategies with sound purchasing practices to select reusable versus disposable products, as well as less hazardous products and products with less packaging…
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