Green Initiatives: Good for the Planet, Patient, Staff and the Bottom Line
- Date: 7/27/2012 - 11:05 am
By Nancy Mulvihill, MA
Published July-August 2012
Health Progress
Ask hospital leaders to name the top challenges to their organizations’ economic viability, and you’re sure to hear about skyrocketing costs, shrinking reimbursements, sluggish admissions, the burgeoning uninsured and an aging population that consumes a dis-proportionate share of resources. Keeping pace with health information technology, adapting to new outcomes-based care models and managing pressures to merge and acquire also make it high on the lists.
Interestingly, however, one issue that should be keeping CEOs awake at night is seldom mentioned — and that’s climate change and health care’s role in it. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with other federal agencies, support evidence that shows climate change poses a threat to human health and welfare via temperature effects, e.g., severe heat waves, extreme weather events and an increase in climate-
sensitive diseases.
Why don’t we take the threat of climate change seriously?