Tools and resources

Overlook Medical Center: Challenging customers to 'try something different'

• Case Study
• Food

  "Adding novelty to an item can entice an individual to try something that they may not otherwise try." - Michael Atanasio, Overlook Medical Center  Overlook Medical Center in New Jersey is a signatory of the Cool Food Pledge, a new platform to help hospitals offer diners more of what they want while slashing food-related greenhouse gas emissions.  Overlook is one of 64 signatories from…

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Beaumont Health System: Reusable trocars

• Case Study
• Greening the Operating Room
• Medical Device Reprocessing

Beaumont Health System Royal Oak Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., worked with suppliers to reduce waste from the operating room by evaluating the use of reusable as alternatives to disposable surgical instruments. In 2013 Beaumont received a Partner for Change award from Practice Greenhealth, the nation’s leading health care membership community. Today Beaumont is a leader in sustainable health…

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How-to guide for Healthy Flooring

• Chemicals
• Healthy interiors
• Healthy flooring
• Guide

The Healthy Flooring how-to guide assists hospitals in achieving our healthy flooring goal, which targets the elimination of chemicals and materials in flooring that can contribute to a wide range of negative health effects, including asthma, cancer, and developmental impacts.

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Healthy flooring criteria and guidance for manufacturers

• Chemicals
• Guide
• Healthy interiors
• Healthy flooring

These documents provide guidance for manufacturers wishing to meet Health Care Without Harm’s Healthy Flooring criteria. The criteria apply to all flooring except carpet, fluid applied floors, and concrete. The criteria do not apply to floor leveling compounds or underlayment. Manufacturers can signal the market that their products meet the criteria below by applying for the Greenhealth Approved…

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Sample awards application: Food

• Food
• Awards

Health care organizations nationwide are offering healthier menus, working with farmers to purchase locally and sustainably grown products, reducing the amount of meat they purchase and serve, and going beyond their walls to help meet the food needs of their community, all in an effort to support the health of their patients, staff, surrounding community and the environment. Practice Greenhealth…

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Climate co-benefits of healthy food access interventions

• Community Benefit and Wellness
• Food
• Tool

(Health Care Without Harm) This issue brief provides an introduction to bringing climate risks into the community health needs assessment process and identifying valuable climate co-benefits of new or existing food-related initiatives in the community benefit implementation strategy.  By aligning environmental stewardship activities at the hospital with community health activities, there is a…

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Tax reporting for healthy food access programs

• Community Benefit and Wellness
• Food
• Tool

(Health Care Without Harm) This guidance brief provides an overview of the reporting categories on IRS Form 990 Schedule H, as well as some guidelines and “rules of thumb” for how to report community benefit support for a set of healthy food access initiatives discussed throughout this playbook.  These programs can be an effective component of community benefit implementation strategies to…

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Evaluating healthy food access interventions

• Community Benefit and Wellness
• Food
• Tool

(Health Care Without Harm) This brief contains recommendations to assist community benefit staff and community partners in conducting program evaluation for healthy food access programs. It contains guidance for evaluation planning and links out to validated, frequently used surveys and data collection tools to bolster support for programs nationally and develop a common set of indicators,…

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Data sources to assess food access, environments, and behaviors

• Community Benefit and Wellness
• Food
• Tool

(Health Care Without Harm) This brief provides an overview of secondary data sources to assess food access, food environments, and diet-related health needs commonly used in community health needs assessments (CHNAs), along with some less frequently utilized sources that may complement widely used measures.  The brief also discusses recommendations for collecting primary data on food-related…

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Engaging the community to understand food needs

• Community Benefit and Wellness
• Food

(Health Care Without Harm) Understanding the built, social, and economic environments in which community members make food decisions as well as the availability of resources to meet daily food needs is critical to effectively address rising rates of diet-related health conditions. Efforts to improve healthy food access and promote healthier community food environments can have a significant…

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