FY17 Environmental Stewardship Program Report

Healthcare Without Waste

  • Leadership
  • Education & Communication
  • Energy
  • Water
  • Green Buildings / Operations & Maintenance / Transportation
  • Safer Chemicals
  • Food Systems
  • Environmentally Preferred Purchasing
  • Waste Management & Reduction

Waste Management & Reduction

Reducing waste while increasing recycling and donations, safely

Reducing Waste by Reprocessing Single Use Medical Devices

In support of Ascension’s efforts to promote healthy lives and communities, The Resource Group works with all Ascension hospitals to reprocess and recycle single use medical devices (SUDs). This initiative cuts down on waste sent to local landfills while reducing expenses for every health ministry. The decrease in waste translates to a healthier environment that benefits everyone.

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Greening the Operating Room

The clinical, surgical and patient care areas of a hospital generate a significant amount of waste on a daily basis. To address this concern, 63 percent of Ascension hospitals are voluntarily employing one or more Greening the OR programs including:

  • Reusable canister fluid management systems
  • Reusable surgical gowns, linens and basins
  • LED surgical lighting and power booms
  • Unoccupied room settings for heating/ ventilation/ air conditioning (HVAC) controls
  • Surgical kit review to minimize product purchases, reduce items required to be sterilized, reduce waste from items not used in surgical procedures
  • Waste anesthetic gas (WAG) capture and reclamation
  • Reusable hard cases for sterilization of surgical instruments

Recycling Sterilization (Blue) Wrap

29 percent of Ascension hospitals have implemented recycling polypropylene sterilization wrap (blue wrap, used to wrap surgical instruments for sterilization prior to surgery) and 44 percent report a focus on clinical waste management, which includes regulated medical waste (red bag) reduction and segregation, and recycling paper and plastics before surgery.

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Recycling Sterilization (Blue) Wrap

29 percent of Ascension hospitals have implemented recycling polypropylene sterilization wrap (blue wrap, used to wrap surgical instruments for sterilization prior to surgery) and 44 percent report a focus on clinical waste management, which includes regulated medical waste (red bag) reduction and segregation, and recycling paper and plastics before surgery.

  • St. John Providence hospitals, Detroit, launched blue wrap recycling in April 2017.
  • The Green Team at Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital, Binghamton, New York provides blue wrap to community advocates making sleeping bags for the homeless. Operating Room and Environmental Services staff collect clean blue wrap for project coordinators, which is sewn inside the sleeping bag as a water barrier, or used as a waterproof layer on the ground.
  • Saint Agnes Hospital, Baltimore, continued implementation of an innovative Regulated Medical Waste (RMW, also known as red bag) program. Rolls of small red bags were installed in patient rooms. The smaller bags cause clinical staff to focus on placing only appropriate materials in the RMW waste stream, which requires special disposal methods with a significantly higher cost than solid waste or recycling. RMW dropped from 21% (FY15) to 15% (FY16) with this practice. Cost avoidance was realized for the hospital, as well as reduced volume of medical waste sent to be incinerated or autoclaved.

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Creatively Reducing Office Waste

Ascension associates located in office settings also do their part to minimize their environmental footprint through on-site gardening projects, rooftop gardens, holiday light recycling and battery recycling events. The Ascension Ministry Service Center sponsors several electronics and hazardous-chemicals recycling events each year for associates and the community.

Construction Waste Recycling

The new Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas complied with Austin’s Construction Recycling Ordinance, which requires contractors for building projects for more than 5,000 square feet of new, added, or remodeled floor area to divert at least 50 percent of the construction debris or reduce disposal to less than 2.5 pounds per square foot.

Ascension Hospitals Join Food Recovery Programs

Hundreds of pounds of food are prepared every day in the kitchen of Providence-Providence Park Hospital, Southfield, part of Ascension Michigan. But what happens to the food that isn't used? To help metro Detroiters that don't have enough to feed their families, the hospital joined other organizations to combat this problem. Now, rather than tossing the unused food, leftovers are donated to the Fish and Loaves Community Food Pantry in Taylor, Michigan.

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Ascension Hospitals Join Food Recovery Programs

Fox2News Detroit WKBK, 2/17/2017 See Full Story >

Hundreds of pounds of food are prepared every day in the kitchen of Providence-Providence Park Hospital, Southfield, part of Ascension Michigan. But what happens to the food that isn't used? To help metro Detroiters that don't have enough to feed their families, the hospital joined other organizations to combat this problem. Now, rather than tossing the unused food, leftovers are donated to the Fish and Loaves Community Food Pantry in Taylor, Michigan.

Once every two weeks, a crew from 2 Men and a Truck picks up food from Providence Providence-Park Hospital, Southfield and delivers it to the pantry to help provide food to those in need. In the first six months of 2017, Providence-Providence Park Hospital, Southfield donated 3,900 pounds of food to Fish and Loaves Community Food Pantry. St. John Macomb-Oakland Hospital and St. John Hospital and Medical Center are also joining in to donate their unused food.

Additional Ascension hospitals recovered a total 41,365 pounds of food in FY17:

  • Alexian Brothers Medical Center, Chicago
  • Providence Health Center, Waco, Texas
  • Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital, Dowagiac, Michigan
  • Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas, Austin, Texas
  • Seton Medical Center, Austin, Texas
  • University Medical Center Brackenridge (now Dell Seton Medical Center at the University of Texas), Austin

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Every Cup Counts

48 percent of Ascension hospitals have reduced or eliminated the use of Styrofoam products in their cafeteria food service, which is primarily used by visitors and hospital associates. This list includes all Ascension Wisconsin ministries, which budgeted eliminating Styrofoam in FY17. New and renovated Ascension cafeterias such as the Dell Seton Medical School at the University of Texas in Ascension Texas will begin business with no Styrofoam products. Styrofoam and plastic items are replaced with plates, silverware and glassware for dining in the cafeteria and paper products for carryout. Styrofoam is a particular problem because it is not commonly recycled and polystyrene is a chemical of concern, especially when used for hot food and drink.

Several hospitals do not provide plastic bags for cafeteria carryout, promote reusable cups with a discount for refills and dispense drinks instead of selling single-use bottles in order to minimize waste that must then be recycled or sent to the landfill.