Preparing for sustainability in health care

Introduction

The health care industry is undergoing significant change, driven by an increased focus on cost-effective care and an increased desire for transparency. These changes have led to a need for sustainability in the sector. This includes both operating practices and innovation in the delivery of health services; however, most organizations do not yet have a complete understanding of what they need to do to be sustainable or how they can achieve this goal.

The Case for Sustainability

Sustainability is a goal that has been widely embraced by the public, but not all have a clear understanding of what it means. To help you understand sustainability and how it can be applied in health care, let’s take a look at some commonly used terms:

• sustainable – describes something that continues indefinitely; “sustainable development”; “sustainable agriculture”; “sustainable energy”.

• degradable – materials or products can be degraded into smaller pieces without loss of function or value; plastic bags made from oil will degrade over time (they’re not biodegradable).

Operational sustainability

• Reduce energy consumption.

• Reduce water consumption.

• Reduce waste generation and disposal, including through recycling, composting and reuse of materials in your facility’s buildings and equipment.

• Use paper sparingly in documents that aren’t required to be maintained electronically (e-mails are an exception). For example, if you’re using letterhead with your logo on it as a business card or invoices for clients, use only two-sided printing so that you can easily print additional copies without having to reprint everything again later on when people request them by emailing their address directly from your website instead of calling them up at the office just because they don’t have access all those extra steps involved in mailing something physical like this would entail otherwise.”

Innovation and transformation

Sustainability is about more than just reducing waste. It’s about creating value, but you can’t do that without innovation. Innovation is key to sustainability because it leads to better products and services for customers, who will be happier with the results of your efforts to reduce waste and increase recycling rates.

To get started on this journey toward a sustainable future, start by following the triple bottom line principle: social (empowering communities), environmental (protecting our planet) and financial (making money). Green procurement means using less resources while still providing high quality products or services at competitive prices; it also means less waste in manufacturing processes so that when things go wrong they don’t end up costing more than necessary; finally it’s good business—and not just because there’s less competition out there looking for ways around these practices!

Green procurement

The health care sector is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the United States, and it’s expected to grow even more as our population ages. With this growth comes one important fact: hospitals and other healthcare providers need to make sure they’re getting value for their money.

As a result, many hospitals are exploring ways of reducing costs while still providing high-quality care. Green procurement can help them do just that by reducing emissions from electricity generation or transportation modes like walking or driving between facilities (as opposed to flying), recycling waste materials such as paper towels instead of sending them straight into landfills, using less energy overall through efficiency measures like LED lighting fixtures that use less electricity than traditional fluorescent bulbs—and much more!

In fact: According to recent studies by The Economist Intelligence Unit & World Health Organization (WHO), “green” projects could save an average hospital $500 million per year globally by 2030.” This means that if every facility increased its sustainability efforts by just 10%, it would result in billions of dollars saved over time.”

Takeaway:

You’ve now learned that sustainability is a long-term goal and not something to be accomplished within one year.

To be sustainable, you need to look at your practices as an organization over time. What are the ways you can make your health care system more sustainable? How will this change improve patient experience or outcomes? What are some of the barriers that stand in your way of achieving these goals?

Being sustainable means doing things differently than before, which may mean reinventing some processes or even changing who does what job within it (for example: moving from paper records to electronic ones). It also means being innovative about finding new ways of doing things—like using technology like sensors embedded in patients’ home monitors so doctors can monitor their health remotely without having to go through lengthy bureaucratic processes first!

Conclusion

As a healthcare provider, sustainability is an important topic to consider. It’s a necessary element of innovation and transformation efforts within the industry—and it’s also a key component of your company’s bottom line. It will help you to increase customer satisfaction and drive down costs while maintaining high-quality patient care at all times.