A Contributed Post: Working Towards Sustainable Hospitals – Five Ways Healthcare Can Go Green
(Note: The woman pictured here is my wellness counselor, Terra Gold–one of the most compassionate and competent people I’ve ever met. – ed)
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One of the key roles of a hospital administrator is to run a cost effective facility and while this can sometimes interfere with efforts to operate an environmentally friendly institution, there are other ways to go green without spending extra money.
Students seeking MSHA careers from Regis College understand the importance of running a cost effective organization, but they also know why it is equally important to focus on going green. Here are five things you can do in healthcare administration jobs that can offer both cost effective and environmentally safe measures.
1. Work with Local Farmers to Source Organic Produce
When buying organic produce you are, for all intents and purposes, doing your part to keep chemical pesticides and fertilizers out of the ground and thus out of the aquifer. It can be extremely expensive to seek out large quantities of organic produce from food service suppliers so many hospitals contract local farmers and cattle ranchers to provide sustainable foodstuffs that do not harm the environment when grown.
2. Seek Ways to Reduce the Amount of Water Used
No, you can’t go without using large amounts of water in a facility this big, especially when sterilization and sanitation depends on having the ability to thoroughly wash everything. However, what you can do is to use as many high pressure faucets as possible because the strength of the spray compensates for extra water you would use otherwise to rinse debris and germs away.
3. Eliminate Unnecessary Paperwork
Careers in healthcare administration should always focus on the elimination of unnecessary paperwork. More and more hospitals are going to digital signage solutions to capture electronic signatures and those electronic images, believe it or not, saves tens of thousands of trees annually.
4. Employ Energy Efficient Technology
From energy efficient washing machines and dryers in the hospital’s laundry room to appliances in the hospital’s kitchen and energy efficient office equipment, there are ways to reduce consumption of electricity that will save the hospital money while going green. In fact, many hospitals are using wind turbines and solar panels to further cut the amount of fossil fuels are being burned in the production of electricity.
5. Educate Employees on Ways to Reduce Power Consumption
Sometimes there is no getting around using things that require a huge amount of energy consumption. In cases like this it is advisable to educate employees on ways to cut usage, such as by turning all unnecessary office and supply closet lights off when not in use, keeping office machinery turned off and/or unplugged as well, especially at the end of each workday. Simple little things like these can add up over time so the only way to get a handle on using less electricity is to educate employees on ways to conserve.
Not only will you be doing your part to help the ecology, but you will also find that consumers in your community will seek out healthcare providers who are making a concerted effort to go green. This is especially important to Millennials, so if you do make some changes towards conservation, make sure your community knows what you’ve done.
