The Association of Medical Device Reprocessors is happy to celebrate Earth Day today and congratulate our partners who are committed to implementing sustainable, environmentally friendly practices.  AMDR member-companies are committed to greening healthcare.  Indeed, reprocessing is one of the most impactful sustainability initiatives used by hospitals today.  By using regulated third-party reprocessors, hospitals can not only extend the life of their existing medical devices (and thus save money) but they can reduce the amount of operating room waste generated.  AMDR has assembled a “green year in review,” highlighting some of the green, reprocessing-related stories of the last 12 months.  Stories at links below.

 

2014 Green Year in Review

 

  • Becker’s Hospital CFO reports how hospital CFOs Should Consider Green Strategies:  Reprocessing is listed as a “win-win” that not only reduces landfill waste, but also the high costs associated with red bag waste.
  • Healthier Hospitals Initiative now has 837 hospitals enrolled as healthcare organizations that seek to boost sustainability, improve purchasing practices, and lower energy costs.  HHI’s report notes about $32 million in savings from single-use device reprocessing.
  • OR Nurse discusses how surgical services have a significant environmental footprint but SUD collection and reprocessing can  save hospitals more than $540 million each year or nearly $2.7 billion over 5 years.
  • Healthcare Global reports that there is one sustainability initiative that truly defines “green procurement.” It is single-use medical device (SUD) reprocessing, which allows hospitals to reduce the cost of purchasing select medical devices and decrease waste from entering the landfill, all without compromising the quality of care.
  • DotMed Healthcare Business News discusses how, along with cutting costs, reprocessing is also a savvy way for hospitals to show their commitment to the environment. The practice is estimated to reduce yearly waste by thousands of tons in the United States alone.
  • Practice Greenhealth releases their 2013 Sustainability Benchmark Report sharing sustainability trends and how hospitals save millions of dollars.  Single use device reprocessing has been shown to save hospitals over $3 million dollars and prevented 680 tons of waste from going into solid waste or RMW disposal.
  • Sterilmed and Stryker Sustainability Solutions Named “Sustainable Resources” in Greening Healthcare Facilities. In 2012, Stryker Sustainability Solutions’ healthcare customers saved $242 million and diverted 7.6 million pounds of waste from our nation’s landfills.
  • Ragan’s Healthcare Communication News discusses the 7 Steps to Making your Hospital Eco-Friendly and why it’s time to go green including how proper reprocessing and sterilization of medical devices allows hospitals to reduce the amount of waste entering landfills.
  • Practice Greenhealth reports that in 2012 Yale-New Haven Hospital diverted 28,674 pounds of waste from landfills due to medical device reprocessing.
  • Greenbiz.com discusses “Sustainability Driven Innovation” (download here) quantifying for the first time how sustainability leadership is linked to innovation leadership.  The article also discusses single-use medical device reprocessing.
  • Inova Fairfax Medical Center has been named on the the “50 Greenest Hospitals in America.  Along with their single use device reprocessing program, Inova saved $2.8 million and reduced approximately 60,000 lbs of waste since 2010 through its single-use medical device reprocessing program.
  • UCSF Medical Center, one of the 50 Greenest Hospitals in America saved $2.2 million last year through reprocessing medical devices, and reducing medical waste.
  • President of Stryker Sustainability Solutions, Inc., Brian White discussed how cost-cutting programs such as the reprocessing of single-use medical devices (SUDs) has been identified by Huron Healthcare Consulting Group as having an average potential cost savings opportunity of $175,000-$315,000 annually .
  • Healthcare purchasing news reports how a 400-bed acute care facility in New England started reprocessing single use devices, saving the hospital more than $350,000 per year in reduced purchasing costs.
  • To mark its one-year anniversary, HHI released its first progress report, which collected data on the environmentally sustainable efforts by 370 hospitals across the nation and Canada. These HHI-member hospitals indicated they have reduced their environmental footprint, lowered costs and improved patient health by incorporating sustainability initiatives like reprocessing into their business models.
  • OR Nurse describes that “Going green,” “greening,” “sustainability” … and reprocessing are all becoming common terms in American society, and the healthcare industry is paying attention.
  • Tim Merchant, the vice president of sales and reprocessing at MEDISISS, and Jason Wanderse, chief executive officer of MEDISISS, gave a presentation titled  “Reprocessing: the Winning Combination.”
  • Hospitals and Health Networks (H&HN) discusses health systems leading the effort to reduce their effects on the environment. . . including medical device reprocessing.
  • Consulting Firm Wipfli Confirms: Sustainability in Hospitals = Savings
  • Healthcareix reports that hospitals “can save millions of dollars in costs for their organizations by reprocessing alone.”
  • Health Leaders Media reports how hospitals find returns on investment in re-use and reprocessing efforts.
  • Sustainable Business News reports how Greening Hospitals Would Cut Health Care Costs saving $5.4 billion over the next five years and $15 billion over 10 years.
  • The Healthier Hospitals Initiative kept more than 100 million pounds of waste out of landfills in its initial year, according to the program’s 2012 Milestone Report.  The program’s 370 member hospitals saved more than $32 million by reprocessing.