Practice Greenhealth announces that Sterilmed has signed on as a supporter of one of the non-profit’s major initiatives focused on greening the operating room.
Practice Greenhealth announced August 19th that Sterilmed has signed on as a supporter of one of the non-profit’s major initiatives focused on greening the operating room. Sterilmed, a leader in the reprocessing industry, is the latest business to join the Greening the OR® Initiative. Reprocessing single-use medical devices is one of the strategies identified to not only significantly reduce the environmental impact of the OR, but also to reduce supply costs by almost 50 percent.
Sterilmed President, Mike Gustafson states: “Utilizing green initiatives and strategies is no longer a choice, rather a necessity in the healthcare sector. Core to our mission, and that of Johnson & Johnson, is helping our customers protect the earth and its natural resources and by joining the Greening the OR Initiative. We are proud to continue to fulfill on that promise.”
Hospitals are energy and resource intensive, and operating rooms are the largest users of that energy. They are also a major consumer of resources, using as much as 56 percent of a hospital’s total budget. In addition, operating rooms produce a disproportional amount of waste — between 20 and 30 percent of a hospital’s total waste volume. To help hospitals run more efficient and environmentally-friendly operating rooms, Practice Greenhealth introduced the Greening the Operating Room® Initiative, which helps hospitals reduce environmental impact, reduce costs, increase efficiency, and improve worker and patient safety.
“We are thrilled to welcome Sterilmed to the growing numbers of sponsors of this important Initiative,” said Laura Wenger, Executive Director of Practice Greenhealth. “Change will not be effected in the healthcare sector without a broad coalition of manufacturers, suppliers and healthcare providers who are working together to create a greener future for our nation’s hospitals.”
Sterilmed joins a large number of participating hospitals, healthcare companies, for-profit companies, and group purchasing organizations that are working to implement large scale green efforts to reduce waste, trim water and energy use, and create markets for EPP products.