Healthcare-related pollution is on par with the amount of lives lost from preventable medical errors. So what can anesthesiologists do to be green? A feature in Anesthesia News examines what anesthesiologists can do to be green.
Here's what you should know.
1. Jodi Sherman, MD, an assistant professor of anesthesiology at New Haven, Conn.-based Yale University told AN anesthesiologists are emerging as healthcare ecological sustainability leaders.
2. Operating rooms leave large pollution footprints with anesthetic gases contributing to a third of the healthcare-related carbon footprint.
3. Dr. Sherman said 5 percent of a hospital's greenhouse emissions come from inhaled anesthetics alone, but there are several small steps organizations can take to limit their impact.
The American Society of Anesthesiologists Environmental Task Force compiled a sustainability checklist with seven broad categories. They are:
- Reduce inhaled anesthetic atmospheric waste
- Reduce IV pharmaceutical waste
- Reduce anesthesia equipment waste
- Practice solid waste segregation
- Consider linen usage
- Avoid excess electronics use
- Develop strong leadership practices.
The whole checklist is available here.
4. "It is not just what we throw away that matters," Dr. Sherman said to AN. "It is also the resources that go into the manufacturing, transportation and the use of supplies—in other words, the entire lifecycle of a product. So reducing waste overall is a critically important strategy.”