Practice Greenhealth

Tools and resources

Implementation Module: Rigid Sterilization Containers in the OR

  • Greening the Operating Room
  • Rigid Sterilization Containers
  • Guide
  • Reuse, donate, or sell
The operating room generates a large volume of disposable plastics, ranging from single-use medical devices to packaging to sterile wrap to plastic pour bottles for irrigation. The vast majority of these items go out the door as waste—either with regulated medical waste (where comprehensive segregation efforts have not yet been undertaken) or as solid waste or recycling. More efficient than…

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Inova Fairfax Hospital: Regulated medical waste reduction

  • Case Study
  • Inova Health
  • Less Waste
  • Regulated medical waste
  • Less Waste Case Study
  • Toolkit
(Less waste toolkit) Learn how Inova Fairfax Hospital, a 900-bed trauma 1 community hospital in Falls Church, Va., reduced 14 percent of red bag waste and saved over $200,000 in waste removal fees.   

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Spectrum Health: Medical plastics recycling in the OR

  • Greening the Operating Room Case Study
  • Recycling
  • Case Study
To become a more sustainable organization, Spectrum Health hired a sustainability coordinator to address recycling. Spectrum Health’s goal was to reduce its overall waste stream by 30 percent by focusing on regulated medical waste reduction and recycling efforts.

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Waste Posters Flyers Overlook Hospital

  • Waste
  • Regulated medical waste
  • Exemplary Document
  • Overlook Hospital
  • Poster
Open this resource to see an example of a poster on regulated medical waste disposal from Overlook Medical Center.

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MedStar 2016

  • Engaged Leadership
  • Employee engagement
  • Exemplary Document
  • MedStar
  • Report
  • Marketing
The August 2015 monthly newsletter from the Maryland Hospitals for a Healthy Environment features notable achievements by MedStar facilities. MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center implemented a successful waste segregation program that decreased regulated medical waste and increased recycling inside the operating rooms, while MedStar Montgomery Medical Center held ten sustainability and wellness…

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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.

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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.