Sustainability is increasingly recognized as an essential element of healthcare quality. And hospitals worldwide are now taking action to achieve sustainable healthcare. As well as delivering low-carbon, resilient, and equitable care that positively impacts patients, the workforce, and the wider community, these hospitals are also benefitting from financial savings.
It is not widely known that sustainability initiatives can be rewarding for hospital operations. The majority of information on sustainability is not tailored to the unique features of hospitals and health systems. Hospital leaders might assume that addressing sustainability requires massive upfront expenses with a long return on investment (ROI). In fact, a wide range of sustainability initiatives in hospitals offer significant opportunities to drive cost savings.
The healthcare sector has a very large opportunity to advance on sustainability. Although making progress can be challenging, tools and information are available to help hospitals and healthcare systems to accelerate sustainability, providing guidance on specific actions and opportunities to consider.
Planning and acting: 1, 2, 3…
Step one: Getting a clear understanding of the areas where there is room for improvement. There are many places to start a hospital’s sustainability journey. For example, identifying the overconsumption of certain medical items or power.
Step two: Finding relevant guidance on where to focus efforts. Achieving sustainability in healthcare is a journey that requires commitment and efforts from both hospital leadership and the workforce. It needs to be based on a clear set of priorities to place focus on these initiatives being successful, and to ensure that resources are used efficiently.
Step three: Starting to deliver the actions in the plan. These will include behaviour changes that optimize the use of resources, assessing and enhancing processes to improve efficiency, and addressing consumption patterns that influence the supply chain.
This collection of ROI-related sustainability initiatives can help you to start planning and acting. Now is the time to develop a strong sustainability strategy – and generate financial savings for your hospital.
Source & Image Credit: IHF
