According to WHO (World Health Organization), a sustainable healthcare system is one that constantly improves, maintains, and then restores health while also at the same time working to minimize the negative impacts that its practices have on the environment.
It also means boosting opportunities for restoring and improving the state of health-giving facilities for both the present and future generations.
Keep reading to find out more about it!
Importance Of Sustainability in Healthcare
Preservation of the environment is something that is very useful in healthcare organizations. Sustainability should be considered a top priority rather than just considering it as a nice-to-have thing. Incorporating sustainability would ensure that harmful and toxic materials are kept out of the environment.
There are several underlying missions of the healthcare industry. They have a responsibility and duty to uphold – regarding taking care of their patients, the staff, and also the community as a whole. Hence, they should engage in green practices whenever they can to prevent the risk of environmental contamination.
For example, hazardous wastes. If these things get released into the waterways and landfills, then they could be potentially damaging to the environment. In the coming years, this will be more of a thing to consider, not just for the healthcare sector but for all other industries as well.
Sustainable Patient Care Business
Here are a few ways how sustainable patient care can be practiced in the healthcare industry:
1. Cutting down on plastic use
When it comes to industries adopting sustainable practices, then the healthcare industry cannot be excluded from it. The medical waste produced by the healthcare industry is something that cannot be avoided from being included in this topic.
There are many medical devices, like bandages, swabs, syringes, etc., that are curated to be used as “one-time only” to ensure the sanitation and safety of the patients. But what happens to these devices after use? Well, they are thrown away, resulting in a bulk of the plastic waste.
However, it is possible for the industry to adopt measures where they make items that are reusable by still ensuring sanitization or just simply by abandoning the usage of single-use plastics. For instance, in the UK, some of the hospitals adopted measures like hand-washing and using sanitizers instead of gloves (in places where the contamination risk was low). By doing this, they were able to cut down on a bulk worth of plastic waste.
2. Practicing chemical safety
The chemicals that are used in LCD displays of various digital screens, flame-retardant mattresses, fluorescent lamps, CRT monitors, and wheelchair cushions are hazardous. This even includes baby bottles in the list. Hospitals must ensure that they are recycling these toxic products periodically.
3. Decrease paper waste
Another common type of waste is Paper Waste which is produced by the healthcare industry in bulk. But this wastage can easily be avoided in modern times with the widespread use of technology.
Doctors can jump in on the technology adoption in this regard and use digital rather than using paper whenever they can. The patient’s health history and medical records can be stored in digital formats too.
4. Adopting the use of Electric Ambulances
Emergency patients will definitely and urgently need care, and reaching them for immediate treatment would not be possible without an ambulance or a car. If that is the case, then they can cut down on gas emissions by adopting electric vehicles.
For instance, an electric ambulance would run on electricity rather than petrol. This would lead to a sustainable form of patient care as well.
5. Reduce wastage of water
The people of the patient care networks and the healthcare industry can save gallons and gallons worth of water just by replacing the faucets of showers and toilets with more water-efficient alternatives.
6. Telemedicine / Telehealth Practices
The last two years bear witness to everything and anything reverting to online. The telehealth practice is very convenient and proves just as effective as in-person care. Presently, tech care companies have also made it easy for the workers of the healthcare industry to offer their services easily online – remote opportunities.
This also effectively helps the workers in reducing their workout. There are multiple advantages to adopting this method. For instance, it is very cost-effective and sustainable.
The healthcare sector contributes to the largest amount of greenhouse emissions. Hence, they should definitely work towards adopting green practices that would benefit the environment. Patient Care Businesses can also adopt the usage of solar panels on their roofs to reduce their consumption of energy resources that are non-renewable.
To Wrap It Up!
Every form of effort that is taken to strengthen environmental sustainability in the healthcare sector can only be done so with the aid of active collaboration and engagement of the workforce.
Thank you for reading up till here. I hope you found the information useful. Let me know in the comments your thoughts on it!
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