With nearly 70 percent of hospital waste coming just from operating rooms and labor/delivery suites alone, hospitals committed to reducing their carbon footprints would be wise to take a look at a new Johns Hopkins study about managing OR waste. Published in the February issue of Archives in Surgery, the report took into account previously published studies about 43 hospitals' environmental practices and then consulted a panel of experts to recommend solutions for greenifying.
Does the term eco-friendly bring solar panels and hybrid cars, but not hospitals, to mind? In the press release, associate professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and lead author of the study, Martin A Makary, explains why maybe it should:
"If we're going to get serious as a country about being environmentally conscious, we need to look at our biggest institutions. When an individual decides to recycle or dispose of waste differently, it has an impact. But when a hospital decides as an organization to go green, the impact is massive."
OR behaviors such as opening multiple containers of sterilized equipment before a surgery, which may not all be used, or disposing of tools deemed “single-use” that have actually been proven safe for reuse after sterilization and calibration, contribute to the nearly four billion pounds of healthcare waste produced annually in the United States. Makary found that the total amount of medical waste could be reduced by 30 percent simply by doing a better job separating infectious and noninfectious trash. Picture those red “biohazard” trash bags in the doctor's office. In hospitals, nearly 90 percent of what ends up in them could really go in regular disposal. Not only is processing what's in the red bags more tedious and energy consuming, but it's far more expensive to boot.
On the design side too, the study includes suggestions about buying eco-conscious supplies and equipping the OR itself with energy-efficient versions of things like overhead lights. Though many people think hospital practices such as using equipment or surgical scrubs only once are necessary for the patient's safety, Makary thinks that may not be the case. The importance of hospitals going green is a no-brainer for environmentalists, and since “we live in a much more cost-conscious medical climate now” it should be one for the penny-counters too.
Tags: Carbon Footprint, Green Science, Healthcare System, Modern Medicine, Reuse
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