By Healthcare Facilities Today

The Michigan Green Healthcare Conference will beheld in Detroit on Sept. 11-12 and will showcase examples of sustainable approaches that area hospitals are undertaking in food and other areas, according to an article posted on AnnArbor.com.

According to the article, any of the hospitals participating in the conference are working on a Healthy Food in Healthcare Program, part of a national Health Care Without Harm campaign. 

The Healthy Food in Healthcare program "works to expand the network of interested hospitals transitioning their current food procurement practices toward purchasing more sustainably-produced food for their patients and staff while also making the critical link between how food is grown and distributed and public and environmental health."

Some Michigan clinicians write prescriptions for fresh fruits and vegetables which are redeemable at farmers markets, the article said. St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor has hired a farmer and built hoop houses to supply some of their food and offer rehabilitation and education. Other hospitals are having CSA farm shares delivered for their employees.

Read the article.