Reston, Virginia (PRWEB) November 15, 2013
For Immediate Release
Mayo Clinic in Arizona Joins Major Health Systems in the Healthier Hospitals Initiative
commits to Help Health Sector Reduce Environmental Footprint and Improve Health Outcomes
The Healthier Hospitals Initiative (HHI) is pleased to announce that Mayo Clinic in Arizona has enrolled in HHI, a collaborative of leading health care institutions united to speed the health care sector toward environmental sustainability. HHI was launched by 12 hospital systems—Advocate Health Care, Bon Secours Health System, Catholic Health Initiatives, Dignity Health, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), Inova Health System, Kaiser Permanente, MedStar Health, Partners HealthCare, Stanford University Medical Center, and Tenet Health Systems—along with Practice Greenhealth, Health Care Without Harm and the Center for Health Design, in May 2010.
HHI is a no-cost campaign to accelerate the adoption of sustainability practices in the day-to-day operations of hospitals in the U.S. and Canada. The goal is to help achieve the health care triple aim, for improved health of patients, staff, and community; reduced environmental impact by the sector; and considerable fiscal savings that reduce the overall national health care costs through better public health.
“Sustainability in health care is both a sound business decision and the right thing to do for improved public health and reduced environmental impact,” said Gary Cohen, President of Health Care Without Harm and Founder of HHI. “We welcome Mayo Clinic in Arizona—they have been a pioneer in the health care sector, and will be an integral part of our vibrant learning community.”
There are currently nearly 800 hospitals enrolled in HHI using their collective sustainability experience, purchasing power and industry representation to encourage the widespread use of proven sustainability practices in six key “Challenge” areas:
- Engaged Leadership
- Healthier Food
- Leaner Energy
- Less Waste
- Safer Chemicals
- Smarter Purchasing
Mayo Clinic’s Green Advisory Group, led by Dr. Henry Tazelaar, focuses on five enterprise-wide sustainability themes: energy management, waste stream management, greening of the supply chain, the built environment and industry engagement. The Arizona campus specifically has had success converting all green landscape waste into mulch for sale to consumers. See the video of Dr. Tazelaar stating why sustainability is a leadership issue.
Success of the campaign will be measured and tracked with aggregate data that can be sorted by state or hospital type—data that will be of great use for demonstrating success. The data collected in 2012 was used to showcase HHI’s success in its first year in the 2012 HHI Milestone Report published in April 2013.
The green movement in health care is completely in concert with any organization’s mission of improving the health and well-being of their community, and promoting effective stewardship of human and financial resources.
Learn more about the Healthier Hospitals Initiative at http://www.healthierhospitals.org.
Contact: Sherry MacDonald
(703) 870-7494
smacdonald(at)practicegreenhealth(dot)org
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About the Healthier Hospitals Initiative
The Healthier Hospitals Initiative (HHI) is a national campaign to implement a new approach to improving environmental health and sustainability in the health care sector. Led by 12 sponsoring health systems and three nonprofits, HHI challenges hospitals to reduce waste in six Challenge areas: Engaged Leadership, Healthier Food, Leaner Energy, Less Waste, Safer Chemicals and Smarter Purchasing. More information is available at http://www.healthierhospitals.org.