Hospitals Urge Peers To Ditch Fast Food, Turn Down The Lights
Eleven of the nation鈥檚 largest hospital systems –including Kaiser Permanente, HCA Healthcare聽 and 鈥 today called on聽their industry聽to be better environmental stewards.
challenges hospitals to reduce energy use and waste, purchase environmentally friendlier products and serve healthier foods. The聽 effort is as much聽about reducing health risks and environmental damage,聽as it is聽about 聽lowering costs, officials said.
Organizers, who hope to have 2,000 hospitals participating by 2014, did not list specific goals such as聽units of聽energy saved, waste reduced or unhealthy food discarded in a press briefing Tuesday.
During the next three years, they said the group would gather data from participating hospitals on the impact of聽“green” policies on the health and safety of patients,聽staff and communities, as well as on health care expenses.
鈥淪ustainability is a critical means to help us achieve our business objective,鈥 said Knox Singleton, CEO of Falls Church, Va.-based . He said his聽company 聽is buying food from local farmers and working to offer聽healthier foods to聽patients, employees and visitors.
Kathy Gerwig, a vice president at Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente (which is not affiliated with Kaiser Health News), said her company weighs environmental impact聽in buying intravenous bags, as well as computers.
It is also offering healthier food to patients and staff. 聽Dozens of hospitals, including more than 25 children’s hospitals,聽now offer food from fast food restaurants, she said, adding, 鈥淭hat needs to change.鈥
Partners Healthcare, which runs Massachusetts General Hospital among other facilities, has reduced聽 energy consumption by 9 percent聽 in the past 18 months by turning down the heat聽and lowering air conditioner use, said John Messervy, director of capital and facility planning. The move is part of an effort to reduce energy use by 25 percent by 2014. 鈥淚f a hospital is fundamentally committed to health, then it has an obligation to make a positive environmental change,” he said.
The 2010 health law helped inspire the green initiative because聽it prods medical centers to lower costs, as well as聽to identify聽benefits they provide to their communities, said Gary Cohen, president of Health Care Without Harm, a nonprofit group working on the effort.
Other hospitals systems involved are Advocate Health Care in Oak Brook, Ill., Bon Secours Health System in Marriottsville, Md., Catholic Health Initiatives in Denver,聽Dignity Health (formerly Catholic Healthcare West) in San Francisco,聽聽MedStar Health in Columbia, Md.,聽聽Tenet Health Systems in Dallas and Vanguard Health Systems in Nashville, Tenn.
