Hospitals and Digital Health Can Save People and the Planet
If the health sector were a country, it would be the world’s fifth-largest contributor to greenhouse gases, following China, the US, India, and Russia.
There is no escaping the reality that the planet’s health and our own are interconnected. If we embrace that biological premise, the health community must unite with environmental affairs experts to collaborate on what must be done to keep the planet sustainable. As World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Ph.D., wrote in the Healthcare Without Harm report, “Places of healing should be leading the way, not contributing to the burden of disease.”
Yet, the global healthcare industry is responsible for two gigatons of carbon dioxide each year, 4.4% of net emissions worldwide. Hospitals generate some five million tons of medical waste annually, from everyday trash such as medical packaging and food to regulated medical waste, which includes used surgical gowns, gloves, scissors, and syringes. If the healthcare sector were a country, it would be the world’s fifth-largest contributor to greenhouse gases, following China, the US, India, and Russia. This is not the US News and World Report ranking that any hospital would seek or applaud.
Health systems are working feverishly to correct course, and to do this, many major centers of medical excellence must align their sustainability and health outcome priorities. Enter eco-health and the next wave of digital health approaches that have the potential to check the health ecosystem’s contribution to the pace of planetary degradation. Through eco-health innovation, the health industry has the potential to block negative impacts and become agents of positive change as we confront our generation’s greatest public health challenges — the fight to sustain a healthy planet and, therefore, us.
Healthcare’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic drove positive change without intending to. Hospitals that mobilized to implement state-of-the-art telehealth and remote care technologies, essential during the height of COVID-19, did so to increase access to care. However, these digital health and medical technologies benefit our environment directly. Telemedicine and EMRs have already reduced in-person office visits by up to 26% in the years before the pandemic, and experts report that making telemedicine a permanent healthcare delivery feature could result in a 40–70% reduction in carbon emissions. But as the perception of the pandemic drifts to the nostalgic memory, the system — driven by reimbursement numbers — tilts back to how we were. “Come into the office” is becoming a too frequent refrain.
DIGITAL HEALTH AND EMRs ALSO SAVE TREES
In a sector known for its love of paperwork and files, Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), geared to provide convenient access to health information for professionals and consumers alike, also have another benefit: saving entire forests. Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest integrated, nonprofit health system, claims that its efforts to prioritize environmental health and patient care enabled it to become the first health system in the US to achieve carbon-neutral status. According to their report, EMRs and telemedicine reduce paperwork and in-person patient visits, and the carbon sequestered can equal 19,200 acres of forest. Imelda Dacones, MD, president and CEO of Northwest Permanente Medical Group, affirms:
“As physicians, climate change is absolutely in our lane — let’s educate ourselves, our patients, and our communities. As a world, we will develop vaccines and effective medicines to treat the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, climate change is a public health crisis where there will be no point of return if we don’t act today.”
CommonSpirit Health, with 137 hospitals and more than 1,000 care centers across 21 states, reports that 1.5 million virtual patient visits between March 2020 and April 2021 resulted in 37,440,731 miles not traveled and 1,678,956 gallons of gas not combusted, for a savings of $3.509 million and a reduction of 15,092 metric tons of CO2 emissions. Beyond increasing our air quality translates to roughly 18,490 acres of forest saved. In addition, patients gained back 923,276 hours by visiting their physicians online, no small matter for our packed workday schedules. That is the power of planning and prioritizing eco-health.
HOSPITALS CONSUME ENERGY
Beyond what goes on inside their corridors, physical healthcare facilities account for 4.8% of the total area of commercial buildings and use 10.3% of total energy consumption in this sector, making hospitals the second-largest energy-intensive consumer of US commercial buildings.
According to a 2019 PLOS ON report, healthcare facilities account for about nine percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. It’s not intentional, but hospitals are energy-intensive operations requiring constant heating, cooling, and medical equipment usage, as well as the movement of patients and staff.
Considering their medical equipment and 24-hour operation needs, It’s understandable but hospitals have an opportunity to tap into technologies that reduce energy dependence. Many of the nation’s leading medical centers are rallying to apply their public health expertise to take on climate change.
Bob Martineau, JD, is a senior partner, environment, energy and sustainability. FINN Partners served as Tennessee’s commissioner of environment and conservation and is a past president of the Environmental Council of the States. Based in Nashville, recognized as the capital of the nation’s health provider service sector, Martineau says:
“Hospitals and healers focus intuitively on delivering exceptional patient care. That mission extends to ecohealth, which positively impacts the community and its future generations. Just as health systems have been societal role models in disease prevention and self-care, hospitals can lead from the front and advocate for policies that protect us from environmental risk. They can inspire others to act by communicating what steps they are taking to lead the way.”
A hospital’s technology, including robots that deliver supplies, handheld devices for staff, and integrated bedside terminals, is implemented to benefit both staff and patients. By tapping into cutting-edge technologies — from those that access patient data to the chromatic glass that adjusts the facility’s temperature- the Intelligent Health Association recognized Humber River Hospital in Toronto, Canada, as North America’s first digital hospital.
THE PROVIDER SYSTEM AS ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE CHAMPION
When it comes to implementing science that improves quality care, crafting global medical guidelines, and taking part in drug development, hospitals have been innovators. Now, it’s time for our provider system to become change agents mobilizing for the planet by embracing green technologies such as smart beds, artificial intelligence, EMRs, virtual reality, digital health, and more.
True, using digital health technologies does not come without its environmental impact. Unlike paper, which has a defined carbon footprint, digital products require power and infrastructure that still consume energy and produce electronic waste. However, adopting renewable energy and intelligent innovation in emerging recycling programs can mitigate these negative impacts.
This should not prevent hospitals from being part of the global solution by innovating to create and adopt a new medical system dedicated to improving human health through eco-health technology. By drawing on the imaginations of architects, entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists, physicians and healthcare professionals, our hospital systems and health facilities have the opportunity to change the world in significant, sustainable, and lasting ways.
Whenever there is a pressing need to save and sustain life, the health sector has always been in the vanguard of passionate innovators and societal role models. Now, hospitals worldwide are not only centers of patient-care excellence but poised to be among the most effective champions of planetary health.
