Some hospitals are creating sustainability councils or “green teams” that involve many specialties rather than hiring one sustainability coordinator. The groups usually meet monthly or quarterly. Conversations range from how to reduce waste and promote alternative transportation, to how to utilize alternative energy sources, conserve water, and purchase environmentally friendly products. Such panels provide an excellent opportunity for hospitalists to take an active role in the greening of their facilities, says Paul Rosenau, MD, a pediatric hospitalist at Vermont Children’s Hospital at Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington. Dr. Rosenau has served on Fletcher Allen’s sustainability council since its inception more than a year ago.
As the only physician on the roughly 15-person panel, Dr. Rosenau represents what he calls “the clinical interface” with what otherwise would be operational issues. Consequently, when Fletcher Allen recently launched a program to begin collecting recyclables in patient rooms, physicians did not view the initiative simply as a directive coming down from the top. Instead, they embraced the effort, helping to legitimize the program and make it more efficient.
“We will counsel families about how to use these bins,” Dr. Rosenau says. “We identify areas where it isn’t working. We know where waste streams are getting mixed. We know where they are a hindrance and not a help because we’re in there day in and day out.”
Hospitalists who work at facilities where sustainability councils don’t exist still can play their part in the green movement. They can start by following the same rules they teach their children, such as turning out the lights when they leave the room.
“Hospitals use an incredible amount of equipment,” says Louis Dinneen, director of facilities management for Fletcher Allen Health Care, which reduced energy consumption at its main campus by 8% last year. “The next big drive is to improve awareness of the staff. … Developing a sense of ownership is a big part of it, especially in a large organization. We’re asking ourselves, ‘What equipment do we have on all the time?’ If it isn’t necessary to leave it on, make sure it gets turned off.”
Hospitalists also can look at program operations and QI projects with an eye toward environmental responsibility. Dr. Rosenau outlines several strategies:
- Begin with something that enables early success. “It really enforces the idea that this is a multidisciplinary effort,” he says. “It makes people feel like they are part of a team working to make the place better. It’s not this external, foreign idea that, ‘We’re going to green things.’ ”
- Be prepared to establish new relationships. For example, get to know the person who does the purchasing in your group if you are concerned about the environmental lifecycle of certain products. “We aren’t experts in these areas, and it’s important that we not take on a completely new activity. We need to be cognizant of the realities of time, burnout, and quality of care,” Dr. Rosenau says. “But having a dialogue with administrators or other key people who can help assess the environmental impact of healthcare delivery is part of the QI role we play. Some of these things probably are not going to change if the initial interest does not come from a clinician who says, ‘I’m concerned about X.’ ”
- Don’t reinvent the wheel. Take advantage of the growing number of resources (e.g., Practice Greenhealth and Health Care Without Harm) that explore the relationship between healthcare and the environment (see “Help Your Hospital Get Green,” p. 25).