The federal government has been working on reducing the cost of health care by insurance reform. Other savings are expected from converting paper to electronic medical records, x-rays first to justify using less energy efficient diagnostic equipment, and closer monitoring of chronic disease patients to avoid hospitalizations.
While these efforts are commendable, a reported $500 million dollars of health care waste remains in place. It thus is incumbent upon hospitals to continue what has been called “squeezing savings out of the system.”
For the present purposes, greening is energy conservation in hospitals. It is a less attended to means for health care savings. Energy efficiency in this setting will simultaneously contribute to two important American goals: health care reform and environmental sustainability.
Broadly speaking, hospitals, including many in Denver, have implemented minor energy savings initiatives such as low flow toilets in public areas. Major energy savings are scarcely in place in Denver hospitals. Also, there are no signs that these are planned for three new hospitals that have broken ground adjacent to Denver. Major energy savings include but are not limited to electricity-generating solar or wind power, energy efficient windows, automatic turn off of lights in unoccupied rooms, and recycling water for multiple uses (e.g., flushing toilets, and irrigating xeroscaped grounds).
A recent Denver Post reprinted a New York Times article by Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize-winner economist. He claimed that by wasting electricity and water, businesses are more susceptible to “economic damage.” This contention applies to for-profit hospitals.
Interestingly, published guidelines are available for hospitals to achieve major energy efficiency. These include the revised 2009 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design System (LEEDS) for hospitals at . The guidelines include a rating system whereby buildings can receive a gold or lower certification for energy efficiency.
Also relevant is UC Denver Associate Professor Osman Attmann’s Green Architecture Advanced Technology and Materials recently published by McGraw-Hill. It provides many methods for green building construction. These include what he calls “energy generation” and “energy retention.”
Given the above, one has to wonder why there is not more major energy efficiency in hospitals. This may be due to multiple factors including organizational values. Most important, may be administrative inattention to a contradiction between a major professional health care value and organization practices. It is widely accepted that health care professionals have a value to do no harm to patients. Thus, it is a contradiction for hospitals to house this value and at the same time neglect energy conservation relevant to patients” health and well-being.
Drawing on the above, top hospital administrators should broaden their institutional standard of care. This should include energy conservation in the value to do no harm to patients. This commitment calls for at least one knowledgeable hospital employee to propose and coordinate implementation of minor and major energy conservation upgrades.
To close, perhaps 2010 American Recovery Act Stimulus Funds should be earmarked for the above interventions in hospitals lagging behind in greening. If this is not feasible, then government regulations, involving sequential deadlines for specific minor and major energy saving upgrades may be appropriate.
Margaret Topf lives in Denver. EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an online-only column and has not been edited.
