by
Diana Bradley, Staff Writer | September 26, 2012
From the September 2012 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
“[When building Palomar Medical Center], CO Architects used tools like USGBC’s LEED rating system and the Green Guide to Healthcare to ensure that the most energy, water, and waste-efficient facility was designed,” says Hamilton. “At the same time, they considered materials’ toxic reduction, useful life, and platform flexibility for the future.”
Meanwhile, the Council on Environmental Quality spotlighted green health in July at a White House event on sustainable health care. The Healthier Hospital Initiative, born from the conjunction of Health Care Without Harm, Practice Greenhealth, The Center for Health Design and 11 of the largest hospital systems in America, shared a roadmap they created for hospitals to embed sustainability into their core business model and provide technical assistance to offer every hospital in America the chance to participate for free. More than 600 hospitals are already involved with the initiative.
“Awareness is definitely growing as evidenced by the rapid growth within the Practice Greenhealth membership,” says Wenger. “When Practice Greenhealth was officially formed in 2008, we had a few early adopter systems but now our membership encompasses close to 1,200 hospitals.”
Consider the financial Savings
With almost 20 percent of the U.S. marketplace based around health care purchases, the industry has significant power, according to McCauley.
Several employees at Downers
Grove, Ill.-based Advocate Good
Samaritan Hospital, along with
family, volunteered to plant a healing
garden outside the main entrance
(Image courtesy of David Kasnick)
“If hospitals as a unit went toward green purchasing decisions, they could significantly reduce costs in the USA, because they are such big buyers,” she says. “So there is the financial savings, but there is also the social cost.”
The health care industry spends $2 billion per year in energy costs, according to Abelkis. And that is just money spent on electricity or utility bills.
“What if every health care facility had renewable energy and didn’t use energy from the coal plant or utility company and was self-reliant when emergency situations came on board?” he asks. “That is $2 billion back in the health care industry, and a reduction of energy of fossil fuels that are making people sick. Could you imagine what that would do for the health care industry and the country?”
