An initiative aimed at speeding hospitals' adoption of green business practices was unveiled during the annual CleanMed conference in Baltimore.
Called the
Healthier Hospitals Initiative, the effort is being led by six healthcare systems: Advocate Health Care, Catholic Healthcare West, HCA, Kaiser Permanente, MedStar Health, and Partners HealthCare. The group put up an unspecified amount of seed money to launch the initiative, but said it hopes to recruit other providers to adopt and provide resources to support its agenda.
“This year, the healthcare industry will purchase $110 billion in supplies, and just a small amount of those are environmentally friendly, because those products either aren't available or are too expensive,” said John Messervy, director of capital and facility planning for Partners during a news conference. “We intend to use our collective purchasing power to push down those costs.”
The group—which partnered with Health Care Without Harm, Practice Greenhealth and the Center for Health Design to develop the initiative—said it would launch an environmentally preferred purchasing website that features product-assessment tools by year-end. The group also outlined an initial three-point agenda that includes steps hospitals can take to improve environmental health and patient safety; reduce resource use and waste; and institutionalize sustainability practices throughout their facilities.
