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Sterilants and disinfectants used on surfaces, medical devices, and all items that come in contact with patients are an absolute necessity for infection control in any hospital.
The two most commonly used sterilants and disinfectants for medical devices in health care also have unwanted side effects for the health care workers who use them. They are:
ethylene oxide, a known human carcinogen; and
glutaraldehyde, with reported side effects experienced by health care workers, such as breathing difficulties, rashes, headaches and nosebleeds.
Both the use and disposal of toxic sterilants and… Read More
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Hospitals and other institutions through the United States are leveraging their food service operation to support environmental and human health.
By creating a sustainable food service vision statement and policy, hospitals move from isolated projects, sustained by the interest and involvement of a few staff, to a formal framework for understanding and making progress.
Conducting an inventory or assessment before setting the policy and plans is recommended as part of this process in order to include effective goals, benchmarks and tracking, and performance systems.
Adoption of a… Read More
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Here you will find guidance, resources, tools, and ways to engage with your peers and other stakeholders across the value chain to support your food journey and help achieve your organization’s priorities and goals.
The way our food is produced, processed, transported, consumed, and disposed of has profound impacts on individual, community, and planetary health. Hospitals and health systems across the country are achieving their organizational priorities by focusing on food-related initiatives.
Make the case
Core values for a better food system
These values underpin the goals… Read More
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Reducing water consumption is a great place for hospitals and health systems to start improving their environmental impact and sustainability practices. There are many reasons water is and should be an area of focus:
Hospitals use approximately 7% of all water use in commercial and institutional U.S. facilities, which is costly when the price of water has slowly been rising over the last decade.
By 2030, it’s estimated that global water supply will only be able to meet 60 percent of our population’s needs.
Though hospitals are often exempted from water conservation regulations in times… Read More
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Medical devices and equipment cost more than their initial purchase price. Maintenance, energy demands, disposal costs, and other long-term costs of ownership can drastically change the lifetime price tag of products and equipment.
The tool provides a framework to assess the financial costs and bring hidden costs to the surface, including:
Maintenance
Use
Disposal
Looking at the maintenance, use, and disposal costs to an organization means looking at costs, such as:
Energy use, water consumption, fuel, and waste disposal
Cleaning
Consumables
Taking all of these factors into account… Read More
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Chemicals are found throughout the health care setting, from conventional cleaning products to furniture that releases hazards into the air over time. Scientific evidence continues to grow about the potential impact of hazardous chemicals on human health. A few reasons to be concerned include the following:
Virtually all people are exposed regularly to a complex mixture of industrial chemicals and other hazardous pollutants, according to government studies.
Many commonly used chemicals are linked to a wide range of negative health effects, including cancer, birth defects, and infertility,… Read More
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Scientific consensus shows climate change is already damaging human health and health care delivery and will have a greater impact in the future. Health care is at the front line of climate change, bearing the costs of increased diseases and more frequent extreme weather events.
Hospitals and health systems are addressing health threats posed by climate change and air pollution, in alignment with their missions to heal. Many are doing so by implementing business-smart initiatives that also protect their communities from climate change by:
Reducing the carbon footprint of hospital… Read More
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Executive championship brings credibility and authority to a program’s mission and goals while setting a tone from the top that this work is important.
Establishing a successful sustainability program requires more than engaged leadership. It takes an authentic commitment from senior- and executive-level leaders backed up with resourcing, governance, modeling new norms, and ultimately shifting the organization’s culture. According to the 2023 Practice Greenhealth sustainability benchmark report, all top 25 performing health systems across the United States had an executive-level champion. … Read More
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Establishing goals that align with overarching organizational strategy and rely upon data collection for benchmarking allows hospitals to generate the deep insights they need to guide their sustainability initiatives and improve resource efficiency.
The adoption of SMART goals has gained traction in health care in recent years. Health systems find including data governance in the goal setting process leads to improved alignment of goals with the overarching organizational mission, garners leadership buy-in, and allows for tracking progress against goals.
One-hundred percent of the 2023… Read More
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Strong governance for sustainability programming in health care is paramount to success. Successful sustainability programming in any industry relies upon more than passion. Practice Greenhealth guides health care organizations to focus on the core elements of developing strong sustainability governance, including establishing sustainability documents, structures, and resourcing.
Our definition of sustainability governance
The systems through which an organization’s sustainability activities are directed, controlled, and held to account. Good governance is a crucial foundation for long-… Read More
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Join Practice Greenhealth
Practice Greenhealth is the health care sector’s go-to source for information, tools, data, resources, and expert technical support on sustainability initiatives that help hospitals and health systems meet their health, financial, and community goals.
Who We Are
Practice Greenhealth is the leading sustainable health care organization, delivering environmental solutions to more than 1,700 hospitals and health systems in the United States and Canada. Partnership opportunities include hospitals, health systems, community health organizations, NGOs, nonprofits, government, academic institutions, and the health care value chain.