A Dec. 4, 2012 webinar looked at how hospitals can achieve savings and reduce their carbon footprint through sustainability programs to reduce energy use and waste, achieve operating room supply efficiencies, and more. The webinar drew on the findings of a recent Commonwealth Fund study, Can Sustainable Hospitals Help Bend the Health Care Cost Curve?, by Susan Kaplan, J.D., and colleagues, which shows that savings from such interventions could exceed $5.4 billion over five years and $15 billion over 10 years.
What: How Sustainable Hospitals Are Achieving Major Savings, a webinar cosponsored by The Commonwealth Fund and Health Care Without Harm
Who: Susan Kaplan, J.D., research assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health; Sister Susan Vickers, R.S.M., vice president of Community Health, Dignity Health, a health care delivery system with facilities in California, Arizona, and Nevada; and J. Knox Singleton, CEO of Inova Health System in Northern Virginia. Anne-Marie J. Audet, M.D., M.Sc., vice president for Health Care Quality and Efficiency at The Commonwealth Fund, moderated.
The archived webinar is available here: http://cc.readytalk.com/play?id=dtyul3
Also available is a Commonwealth Fund–supported report, Creating a Culture of Sustainability, prepared by the Health Care Reseach Collaborative and a related blog post on The Hastings Center's Bioethics Forum.
