Greening the Operating Room

By Kaeleigh Sheehan, Member Engagement Manager, Greening the OR

Summer might be a time to slow down, relax, enjoy the longer sunshine hours, but for the Greening the OR team, the fun is just getting started! *That’s not really true, the Greening the OR fun has been going on for the last couple of years, I just wanted to start off with a cute saying. Here’s a recap:

GOR Resources

Practice Greenhealth collaborated with some key experts to provide guidance and respond to the many questions and confusion around HVAC setback as an energy reduction strategy in the operating room. If you haven’t reviewed already, check out these recorded calls and the corresponding worksheet tool.

AORN Surgical Conference Boston 2017

In April, the Greening the OR Team (including Julie Moyle, Christopher Bodkin, Hermine Levey Weston and Kaeleigh Sheehan) hosted an exhibit booth at the AORN Surgical Conference and Expo in Boston. We loved this chance to get to meet with OR nurses and hear their stories, feedback, and learn about ways they are (or can be) Greening the OR Champions at their facilities. It’s pretty inspiring to hear very passionate OR nurses talk about how they’ve been leading these efforts at their facilities for years, ‘because it’s the right thing to do’, and ‘there’s such a connection to patient care’ and ‘we recycle at home, why can’t we at work.'

Julie Moyle and Kaeleigh Sheehan from Practice Greenhealth were joined by John Villani of Grumman/Butkus Associates and Ramona Conner from AORN presenting on HVAC Setback in the OR. It was fun watching the room of OR nurses bristle when John mentioned ‘an engineer said he didn’t trust the OR nurse to hit the button to switch the OR out of setback if an emergent case came up. This was an uncomfortable moment, and also an excellent illustration that implementing an HVAC setback program, like most programs, requires a cross-departmental team of key stakeholders to be involved and to trust each other. (Check out the worksheet tool for ideas on who to include in that team).

Greening the OR-related presentations at CleanMed2017

• Improving Intravenous Pharmaceutical Management: Pre-Filled Syringe Implications for Cost, Waste and Safety

• How to Engage Clinicians in Sustainability using Novel Educational and Creative Methods

Systematic Approach to Waste Reduction and Cost Savings in the OR: the TAVR Case

• The Minneapolis VA Health Care System’s Experience with Greening the OR

Greening the Operating Room Leadership Award

For the second year in a row, Cleveland Clinic received the Greening the OR Leadership award, which recognizes the top performer out of the Greening the OR Circle of Excellence Winners for their superior innovation and commitment to environmental stewardship within the surgical department. Read more on their work in the upcoming Greenhealth magazine.

Coming next: Make sure to bring your periop team and join the Waste Anesthetic Gas Webinar on June 21.