The COVID-19 pandemic upended health care and continues to have lasting impacts on the way we deliver care. It brought significant shifts in hospital operations, from shutting down elective surgeries and vastly reducing food service operations to dealing with monumental supply chain challenges and a rapid transition to telehealth.
Sustainability leaders at Practice Greenhealth partner hospitals remained committed to maintaining sustainable practices where possible and lending sustainability expertise to emerging challenges.
As the only organization collecting comprehensive sustainability data for the health care sector, we were uniquely positioned to pivot to collect and analyze additional data highlighting how the pandemic influenced sustainability performance and shifted operational practices within the Practice Greenhealth partner network in 2020.
65% of facilities made changes to their air handling protocols in response to the pandemic
48% of facilities directed some portion of their non-clinical staff to telework in 2020
67% of facilities increased their use of disinfectants for environmental cleaning as a result of the pandemic
