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By Beth Eckl, Practice Greenhealth Environmental Purchasing program director
You’ve secured leadership support, built a team of colleagues who were successful in getting an environmental purchasing policy adopted, and now it’s time to select environmentally preferable products and services. So which contracts should you begin with? And how do you prioritize among hundreds of purchasing opportunities?
Setting priorities enables organizations to focus on the highest value opportunities to drive sustainable development.
Some choose to begin with a strong business case for targeting products… Read More
Type: Press
What began as an employee engagement campaign at Gundersen Health System blossomed into a project aimed at inspiring health care landscapers across the country.
Gundersen Envision, a subsidiary of Gundersen Health System, developed Udderly Green organic soil amendment products in collaboration with Purple Cow Organics.
The venture is rooted in Gundersen Envision’s dairy digester biogas renewable energy project in Middleton, Wis., one of the health care system’s many clean energy projects.
Planting a seed
Several years ago, Gundersen Health System and Dane County in Wisconsin partnered… Read More
Type: Press
By Julie Moyle, MSN, RN Outreach and Engagement Specialist
General anesthesia administered during surgical/interventional procedures typically includes the administration of anesthesia gases. Only about 5 percent of administered anesthesia gas is metabolized by the patient, while the other 95 percent is expired by the patient during respiration. To protect personnel in the OR from being exposed to the anesthesia gas, a breathing circuit and dedicated HVAC vacuum line (usually purple in color) diverts or “scavenges” the unmetabolized waste anesthetic gas (WAG) from the patient and vents… Read More
Type: Press
The Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN. Welcomed Hermine Levey Weston
By Hermine Levey Weston, RN MBA
My father, an oral surgeon, was what we nurses referred to as a “tough patient.” When hospitalized, I saw more than one surgical or anesthesia resident slink from his room when he demanded the “attending” physician. He complained about the food and being left alone for hours without medical or nursing attention. My mother and I did a whole lot of hand holding, eye rolling, and apologizing to his care givers.
He had a nasty kidney infection in his late eighties and he was cared for at the… Read More
Type: Press
By Iqbal Mian, Practice Greenhealth member engagement manager
The first time I saw Sister Mary Ellen Leijewski, Dignity Health’s vice president of corporate responsibility, was at CleanMed a few years ago. Along with fellow CleanMed participants (I worked at a fellow Practice Greenhealth member health system at that time), we listened intently to Sr. Mary Ellen’s inspirational message on the intersection of sustainability and the respect for life through the value of stewardship.
At that time, I worked at Ascension Health/Ministry Health System guiding over a dozen hospitals and 46 clinics… Read More
Type: Press
Increased awareness around the presence of pharmaceuticals in drinking water has resulted in closer scrutiny and increased regulatory oversight of pharmaceutical waste. Evidence of feminization of fish raised a red flag and resulted in more studies, closer scrutiny, and concern for human health and the environment. The U.S. Geological Survey has done extensive work to characterize the kinds and volumes of pharmaceuticals ending up in waterways. Learn more at U.S. Geological Survey's Emerging Contaminants Project.
While hazardous pharmaceutical waste management is a headline… Read More
Type: Resources
(Less water toolkit) The Health care water conservation and pollution prevention presentation and script was developed to help you educate your community. Download the presentation with notes to use as you see fit.
Type: Resources
Sample poster from Dartmouth-Hitchcock made with a customizable template to raise awareness around less waste.
Type: Resources
Transitioning grassroots or departmental greening initiatives towards a formalized sustainability plan requires an engaged leadership team. And it's no coincidence that the furthest-reaching health care facilities have firm leadership engagement. Engaged leaders help move sustainability initiatives beyond specific areas of success and reach across all departments and initiatives with a direct link to the strategic direction of the organization.
When health care leaders can articulate why this work is important on a personal level and then operationalize that commitment throughout the… Read More
Type: Resources
Infection prevention and control in health care is of primary importance. Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) direct costs are between $35.75 billion annually and result in almost 100,000 deaths in the US. HAIs also hold implications for reimbursement, as CMS now requires that the occurrence of three HAI related Healthcare acquired Conditions (HACs) may result in lower reimbursement rates in Medicare patients without other complication. This rule continues as part of its annual Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) rule which took effect on October 1, 2008. Although there may not… Read More
Type: Resources
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 1,500 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.