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S U S T A I N A B L E
S U C C E S S
savings, but a third-party energy efficiency certifier for medical equipment and electronics is lacking. It's a slow evolution, but hopefully over
time a robust set of standards will be developed for evaluating medical
and diagnostic equipment.
Until then, ask vendors that sell energy-efficient equipment to show
the data that back up their claims. When deciding between similar
products, ensure they provide comparable patient safety and care
benefits, but also look to the environmental impacts. Compare the
plug loads to see which one actually consumes less energy during use.
Also consider how much energy they use in hibernation modes compared to when they're running full time.
6. Involve anesthesia
Anesthesia providers are very interested in implementing sustainability initiatives within their scope of work, and many facilities at the
forefront of the going-green movement want to limit drug waste.
Rotating your drug inventory to ensure the oldest medications are
used before they expire is a good place to start. Using dose-specific,
pre-filled syringes also means less leftover medication is disposed of
at the end of cases.
Sustainability initiatives touted by the American Society of
Anesthesiologists in its 2012 Greening the Operating Room report
(tinyurl.com/b8njp6f) include encouraging the use of pre-filled drug
syringes and examining the components of the various pharmaceuti1 1 6
O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | F E B R U A R Y 2013
