Sustainable Cost Reductions for Community Hospitals: A Sustainable Initiative - Essay Sample

West, D. J., & Ramirez, J. B. (2016). Sustainable Cost Reductions for Community Hospitals. Humanum. 113.

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The article emphasizes the cost containment issue as a sustainable initiative to be embraced in hospitals that can help in reducing wastes. The issue has become a significant focus in the last decades. It is part of a sustainable initiative to help in waste reduction in the hospital. The economy has been very positive regarding the issue of enhancing its successful implementation. The financial situation sometimes is more aggravated as the outcomes of health in hospitals such as an increase in mortality rate and decrease in life expectancy are often experienced. Such situations sometimes deteriorate the cost to be used in the maintenance of waste in the hospital. There is still a need to consider the crises that result in the extra cost in the health care system initiating the cost control strong case.

Bravo, D., Gaston, R. G., & Melamed, E. (2020). Environmentally Responsible Hand Surgery: Past, Present, and Future. The Journal of Hand Surgery.

The main contributor to environmental waste in health care. It calls for a severe sustainable initiative of waste reduction to enhance a friendly environment within the hospital. The wastes that are released in the health care sector account for a greater fraction of the national air pollution impacts and emissions. Therefore, it is essential to device a strategic initiative that will be sustainable in the reduction of waste in hospitals. One of the initiatives is by the introduction of red bags in patient's rooms to be used for waste disposal. It will help in reducing the rate at which hospitals dispose of the disposal area.

Thiel, C. L., Woods, N. C., & Bilec, M. M. (2018). Strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from laparoscopic surgery. American journal of public health, 108(S2), S158-S164. https//: ajph.aphapublications.org

The journal talks about different interventions designed for waste reduction from the methods that the sustainable health care facilities advocate. The assessment of the environmental life cycle is embraced to identify the appropriate sustainable initiative that can be employed in hospitals to reduce waste. Therefore, the journal concludes that to reduce the environmental pollution by wastes in hospitals; there is a need for the health care providers to embrace a combination of strategies such as maximizing the instrument reuse, minimizing materials, and reducing the use of off-hour energy in the operating room.

Sustainable Initiatives

The red bag waste reduction is chosen to be one of the sustainable initiatives to be employed in hospitals. The appropriate container or bag that is carrying waste should be placed in every area within the hospital where there may be a generation of some particular waste category. The waste separation and identification instructions should be placed at each point of collecting waste to remind individuals and the concerned workers with the procedures to be followed when disposing of waste. The containers or bags which are carrying waste should be removed when three-quarters full. The bags should not be combustible or non- halogenated plastics that might cause pollution in case of fire breakout (West & Ramirez, 2016). While reducing waste, corrections not be made when an error of segregation occurs by putting one bag of a different color inside another bag with a different color or by removing items from one bag to another. Therefore, if the general waste is mixed with hazardous waste accidentally, then that mixture is termed as the dangerous healthcare wastes.

The provision of health care services is essential in sustaining human health. It is unfortunate that there are so many life hazards associated with health care providers and threatens the human population. It is, therefore, important to come up with well-designed initiatives to help in sustaining wastes in the local facilities. Discussed below are some of the initiatives which, when taken into practice, can lead to a reduction of waste or eradicate the problem. But to list just a few; minimal chemical use, alternative sustainable products, embracing green economy, recycling program, and improvement of transport strategies.

Embracing the Green Economy

A sustainable initiative of reducing waste in hospitals is by embracing the green economy, which has been employed in some health facilities of late. The use of organic products has proved to be sustainable in all environments and health care facilities in particular. It is because the materials are made of organic products that easily decompose at points they are disposed of, leading to the reduction of further accumulation of waste (Thiel, Woods & Bilec, 2018).

A bigger percentage reduces exposure to the environmental contaminants, and chronic disease emanating from the contaminated environments is reducing to almost zero. The employees in the health facilities and community at large are relieved of environmental contamination. The government is also spending little on environmental conservatives as those practices promote self-environmental sustainability. To further ensure that greening is effective additional measures have been put in place to check on the effectiveness of the initiative (Thiel, Woods & Bilec, 2018).

Managing Waste

The initiative is aimed at checking whether all the wastes finding their way into a health facility are land out of the facility. The people involved in this are nurses, environmental service staff, and others concerned with waste handling. In addition to this, the regular waste audit is conducted to find out further that the wastes are fully eliminated from the hospital. It also incorporates waste reduction and reuses to avoid the accumulation of heavy waste at points not necessary.

Controlling Medical Waste

Disposal rate is a parameter that is of use when it comes to waste reduction. It is achievable through collaboration with the infection preventionist that spearheads the need to meet better medical waste reduction by strategic container placement and offering civil education to members of the society who are not prone to infections of all kinds. Healthcare units track volumes of waste over a while and compare with the baseline to predict percentage trend interns of rising and fall of volumes of wastes produced.

Appropriate Transport Strategies

The harmful nature of waste can be reduced by timely transportation of waste to a place specifically and properly designed for waste disposal. In every health care facility, it should be such that transport departments are on the stand by and well-resourced to ensure that there is no delay between a waste is taken out of a health facility to avoid contaminating the environment and immediate members of the society.

Timely Identification and Solving Problems

Waste is a major problem that most health facilities are crippled with and are trying by all means to solve partially or wholly to facilitate service delivery. If a cause for waste accumulation and spread is identified early enough and necessary measures are developed to control the situation, the harmful effect will be over a short period and fewer number of individuals affected by the waste (Thiel, Woods & Bilec, 2018). Thus, it can be easily achieved through appropriate policy development by experts with adequate knowledge of waste management and disposal.

Financial Sustainability Project

Projects aiming at controlling waste in health care facilities, which is financed by a stable source to warrant that there is no discontinuity at any point. The leadership through the project manager should wisely formulate a waste managing and control project that does not heavily rely on financial support so much but also efficient and effective in pursuant to curb the situation. A management plan should also design a framework that is well balanced in terms of human and capital intensiveness to ensure its continuity at all seasons of its operations (West & Ramirez, 2016).

Minimal Water and Energy Consumption

The volume of waste released is directly proportional to the energy and water used in producing the products turned into waste. If the leadership and management of any health care facility aiming at controlling the quantity of water and energy consumed at any instance in production, then the volume of waste will also drop with a bigger percentage (Bravo, Gaston & Melamed, 2020). The initiative will finally result in inefficient service delivery and a conducive working environment for staff at all levels.

In a nutshell, once the above approaches are employed effectively to enhance the sustainable waste reduction in hospitals, the outcome which is expected should be the cost, which is reduced of disposing of waste, and red bags for waste are increasing. There are times when wastes are regulated in the hospitals, and they encompass contaminated items. They can transmit infections such as drains, gauze, blood-soaked gowns, tubing, and suction canisters. Because those wastes which are regulated from the health facility are treated explicitly before reaching the landfill, the disposal cost is lower compared to the energy burden and regular garbage.

It is advisable to keep records when launching the initiative of sustainable waste reduction in hospitals for its successful implementation. It is also essential because of a better understanding of the total wastes which are generated by the hospital, making it easy to have in place the measures which are sustainable for waste reduction (Bravo, Gaston & Melamed, 2020).

References

Bravo, D., Gaston, R. G., & Melamed, E. (2020). Environmentally Responsible Hand Surgery: Past, Present, and Future. The Journal of Hand Surgery.

West, D. J., & Ramirez, J. B. (2016). Sustainable Cost Reductions for Community Hospitals. Humanum, 113 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhsa.2019.10.031

Thiel, C. L., Woods, N. C., & Bilec, M. M. (2018). Strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from laparoscopic surgery. American journal of public health, 108(S2), S158-S164. https//: ajph.aphapublications.org.

West, D. J., & Ramirez, J. B. (2016). Sustainable Cost Reductions for Community Hospitals. Humanum, 113.