From the September 2017 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Upstream interventions, improved outcomes
Rather than treat illness after the fact, health care is looking toward creative “upstream” interventions that can prevent conditions before they occur, conditions like diabetes and obesity that create huge costs for health care and society. These upstream efforts often intersect with sustainability initiatives: farmers’ markets in hospital parking lots; prescribing fresh food to patients and serving healthier, fresh and sustainable foods in facilities. On paper, the initial cost of these programs can seem high, and yet over time they are money savers compared with the costs of repeated hospitalizations and treating sicker patients. That’s why two-thirds of the hospitals Practice Greenhealth works with have plans for serving healthy, sustainable food, and half have reduced their meat purchases to help finance meals that focus on vegetables and other fresh foods.
Toward toxin-free facilities
Toxins in furniture, floor coverings and other internal furnishings have been linked to reproductive problems, cancer and developmental delays. Increasingly, hospitals and health systems are changing their purchasing habits to avoid the furnishings, furniture and equipment made from harmful chemicals implicated in disease. The effort has gained enough momentum to attract the purchasing departments of several national health systems and create an industrywide shift. As demand for toxin-free furnishings has grown, the cost of healthy furniture has dropped. In 2016, the percentage of hospitals prioritizing furniture and medical furnishings free of halogenated flame retardants, formaldehyde, perfluorinated compounds and PVC grew by more than 55 percent from the previous year.
Hospitals will continue to lead
In recent months, Practice Greenhealth has heard from more clinicians and health care professionals on the front lines of our nation’s health. These leaders recognize that environmentally responsible practices are integral to reducing operating costs and creating better patient outcomes. Together, we are strengthening our health care delivery system while supporting healthy communities and a healthy planet.
About the author: Gary Cohen is co-founder and president of Health Care Without Harm (www.noharm.org) and Practice Greenhealth (www.practicegreenhealth.com). Cohen was named one of the 2015 fellows of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
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