November 18, 2013 – 3:00 – 4:00pm EST
Everyone knows healthcare can be a messy business – with hospitals generating approximately 5.9 million tons of waste every year destined for landfills, incineration, or other environmentally harmful treatment options. What might not be so obvious is that the various waste streams within a healthcare can be very costly – with the average hospital spending lots of money on waste disposal each year. As hospitals look to identify cost-savings, one are for constant education is around regulated medical waste. Many hospitals currently throw much of their waste in the regulated medical waste (RMW) stream, despite being non-infectious. RMW is much more expensive – and harsher on the environment. Hospitals that have implemented an education, minimization and segregation program have seen significant cost savings and a reduction in overall waste.
Learn how Johns Hopkins Health System has used the HHI as a scorecard to establish measurable goals for sustainability improvements, and through a focused effort to reduce its regulated medical waste stream, was able to reduce RMW by over 50%, in the first six months!
See full announcement here