Survey dives into clinical perspective on sustainability

Facility professionals aren’t the only staff in health care that realize the impact sustainability can have on both clinical and nonclinical operations.

According to a recent study from Johnson & Johnson Medical Device Cos., 92 percent of physicians and 88 percent of health system executives agree that sustainability provides long-term cost savings for health systems. Most of the respondents (95 percent) say that environmental sustainability contributes to the value of care delivered in their health system. According to the survey, some of the impacts of maintaining a sustainable operation are to protect the environment (76 percent), improve patient care (73 percent) and increase the ability to manage risk and regulatory performance (68 percent).

Intermountain Healthcare has a multipronged sustainability strategy, and has worked with Johnson & Johnson to get the maximum value from its initiatives. For instance, the hospital has leveraged Johnson & Johnson’s CareAdvantage program to expand its recycling program.

"Sustainability is critically important to Intermountain Healthcare, but recycling alone is not going to help us reach our goals," says Steve Bergstrom, director of sustainability at Intermountain Healthcare. "Our collaboration helps us reduce waste and operating room expenses through a more circular systems approach that is saving hundreds of thousands of dollars on medical device costs and diverting tens of thousands of pounds of Intermountain waste from landfills each year."