By Healthcare Facilities Today

As hospitals and healthcare systems struggle with growing costs and pressures to reduce their environmental footprints, there is a tremendous opportunity for them to cut costs and waste through more sustainable practices, according to an article on the Healthcare Purchasing News website.

Environmentally preferable purchasing (EPP) refers to purchasing products/services whose environmental impacts have been considered and found to be less damaging to the environment and human health when compared to competing products/services. Practice Greenhealth, a sustainable healthcare membership organization that leads and supports initiatives to further the adoption of sustainable, eco-friendly practices, points out that healthcare purchasing leaders are the ideal individuals to head up EPP initiatives in their organizations because "nearly every waste that leaves a hospital came in through purchasing," the article said.

"Every product that comes in the front door may have an environmental impact. The impact may happen during the product’s use, or when the product leaves the back door as waste," Beth Eckl, Director of the environmental purchasing program, Practice Greenhealth, said in the article. "These impacts can be reduced by identifying products that are environmentally preferable to a competing product. The best place to start is with supply chain — before products come in the door — and to ask suppliers about potential impacts to identify products that are environmentally preferable."   

In the article, Eckl pointed to the success of The University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview. The medical center reviewed its operating room kits and found that many of the supplies were unnecessary and usually ended up in the trash having never been used. After working with their vendor to reformulate these kits and remove these items, they were able to divert more than 5,000 pounds of waste, saving them $1,333 in avoided waste disposal costs. They also saved more than $81,000 in unnecessary supply purchases.

Read the article.