Going green: decreasing medical waste in a paediatric intensive care unit in the United States

Abstract

The healthcare industry generates significant waste and carbon emissions that negatively impact the environment. Intensive care units (ICU) are a major contributor to the production of waste, due to patient complexity and needs requiring extensive equipment, cleaning practices and pre-emptive supplies. To quantify the extent of the problem, health care professionals collected all unused medical supplies destined to be discarded over three one-week periods in a paediatric intensive care unit, weighed the items, and created an inventory. This article argues for greener hospital standards and provides a specific example of a project framework to reduce disposable waste with the hope that others can embark on similar initiatives for a more ethical and sustainable future for hospitals. Healthcare facilities must not just meet short-sighted safety standards of the now. In order to be a virtuous organization, one must consider all implications of daily decisions, including disposable supplies and cleaning.

KEYWORDS:

• Medical waste
• reduction
• sustainable healthcare
• critical care units
• Green hospital teams

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Zelda J. Ghersin is the Chief Pediatric Critical Care fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children in Boston, MA.

Michael R. Flaherty is the Associate Program Director for the Pediatric Critical Care Medicine fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children and an Instructor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He also serves as the Quality and Safety Director for Pediatric Critical Care.

Phoebe Yager is the Chief of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children and an Associate Professor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. She also serves as the Program Director for the Pediatric Critical Care Medicine fellowship.

Brian M. Cummings is the Associate Chair of Pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children. He is also an attending in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Chair of the Pediatric Ethics Committee and an Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.