Greening Healthcare A first step

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Greening HealthcareA first step

• Mark Ballard
• Lisa Mu
• Sarah Khan
• Joanna Oda

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What is Sustainable Healthcare?

• Currently many hospitals only look at patient
  healthcare vs. financial budget
• Hospitals should look at three factors
• Patient Healthcare
• Financial Budget
• Minimizing Environmental Harm

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Outline

• Global Warming and Hospitals
• Canadas Commitment
• Why Teach Sustainable Healthcare
• What others are doing about Sustainability
• The Role of DPAS in Sustainability
• What Medical Students need to know
• Rough Course Details
• Conclusions and Questions

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Global Warming

• An Inconvenient Truth Provides a good Overview
• Humans are the primary cause of Global Warming

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Healthcare and Global Warming

• Healthcare is second only to the manufacturing
  industry in its generation of pollution
• Healthcare makes up 10 of Canadas GDP
• Thus major consumer
• Thus major polluter

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Hospitals Ecological Footprint

• The average Canadian
• 7.66 hectares
• The average American
• 12.22 hectares
• The average Asian
• 1.78 hectares
• Vancouver City
• 180 X its political boundaries
• A Canadian Hospital
• 700 X its actual size

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Hospitals Ecological Footprint

• Points of Interest
• Energy use contributed to 88
• (the energy consumption for developed nations is
  50)
• 8.2 pairs of gloves per patient per day were worn
• Of 220 tonnes of paper 97 tonnes were recycled
• Companies were unwilling to provide information
  on product composition
• Food was not calculated
• Building maintenance was not calculated

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Pollutions Impact

• Pollution and ecotoxicity
• Resource depletion
• Climate and atmospheric change
• Reduced ecosystem health

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Healthcares pollution

• Clean general waste
• Recyclables
• Biomedical waste
• Gaseous, Chemical and liquid waste
• Radioactive waste
• Pharmaceutical waste
• Miscellaneous waste

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Canadas Commitment

• Kyoto Accord
• Carbon dioxide emissions 5 below 1990 Levels
• Huge Public Support
• Political and economic objectives
• not competitive with US

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Canadas Commitment

• Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and
  Climate
• An agreement signed by US and Canada to promote
  the collaboration between countries in the
  development of clean energies
• a deal on climate change that doesnt limit
  pollution is the same as a peace plan that allows
  guns to be fired Worldwide Fund for Nature

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What has been done in other places

• United States
• New Hospitals Built to LEEDS standards
• Leadership in energy and environmental
  sustainability development
• Ontario
• Waste Disposal Improvements
• Air Cleaning
• First LEED hospital

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What has been done in other places

• British Columbia
• Interior Health Authority
• 3 LEED Hospitals
• Recognized by the Government
• Research on adverse effects done by Healthcare
• Capital Services wrote up rules on new hospital
  design

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What are the policies of selected Health
Authorities

• Vancouver Coastal Health
• No response, no Publications
• Vancouver Island Health Authority
• Forwarded e-mail to another department
• Northern Health Authority
• Purchases bulk quantities
• BC College of Physicians and Surgeons
• No Response, no publications

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Why Teach Sustainability

• Primum non nocere- First do no harm
• Healthcare pledges to not hurt people
• Healthcare generates pollution
• Pollution hurts people
• Hospitals should reduce pollution
• In fact healthcare should take a role of
  leadership in this area

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What the students want to learn

• What can I do?
• Work-Life Balance
• Too much personal spending
• Excessive Paper
• Too much Recycling
• And not enough reusing and reducing
• Lack of foresight in building design

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Where does DPAS fit?
DPAS
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Considerations

• Students in Hospital can consider actions they
  are making
• New Family Physicians can make considerations in
  the location of their family practice offices

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Current Decision Tree
Cost of Rent
Number of Patients
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New Decision Tree
Number of Patients
Cost of Rent
Environmentally Friendly
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The Decision Making Model

• Many Patients vs. Few Patients
• High Rent vs. Low Rent
• Green Decision vs. Wasteful Decision

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What can be done practically

• In Addition to a theoretical thinking model
  practical ideas for inspiration can be brought up
• Staff Training Programs
• Proper disposal procedures
• Influence on administrative decision making

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Summary

• DPAS can provide
• Knowledge of the ethical duty of healthcare to
  the environment
• A theoretical model to help students make
  environmentally sound decision in the hospital
  and at home
• Inspiration on practical solutions that students
  can take to make things a little greener

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Potential Instructors

• Dr. Warren Bell
• Dr. Bob Wollard
• Dr. Trevor Hancock
• Very knowledgeable in this field
• Provided many of the sources for this presentation

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Conclusions

• Sustainable healthcare is recognized, but, not
  acted upon.
• DPAS is in an optimal position to be a leader in
  this area
• Important for the future of our planet, of our
  patients and of our families.

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Student Initiatives

• PEAS
• Approaching University of Ottawa Medical Faculty
• Approaching Selected Hospitals in Victoria
• Vancouver Coastal Health

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Acknowledgements

• Dr. John Anderson
• Physicians For Global Survival
• Dr. Trevor Hancock

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