We are starting to pay more attention to the relationship between population health and the condition of the environment. The infrastructure of hospitals affects our health in the society.
What is the simplest way to change hospital infrastructure in order to meet the environmental needs?
Some hospitals in Poland have already started to think about it and implement measures. The hospital in Wolica can be called the first green hospital in Poland. What can we do? Use renewable energy sources, carry out thermo-modernisation, and make conscious purchases of equipment so that it is energy-efficient, contains fewer harmful substances, and operates in a closed-loop economy. Another solution is digitisation to prevent unnecessary visits of the patient to the hospital (when appropriate) and unnecessary visits of the doctor – if they can review the diagnostic imaging from anywhere, for example.
With respect to the equipment, note that environmentally-friendly systems are part of the ecodesign approach, which means that the features of the medical device that are beneficial to the environment and the patients are determined already at the design stage. For example, an ecodesign-based state-of-the-art resonance scanner consumes negligible amounts of helium for cooling (only 7 litres instead of 1,500 litres), and is fully digitalised. What is more, at the end of its useful life, many of its components can be used in a completely new device.
New technologies must generate high costs. Can the health care system handle this?
This is the question I asked to the director of the hospital in Wolica. I asked if they need a lot of additional expenditure. He said that it depends on the approach of the managers. If they focus on the long-term development of their infrastructure and consciously choose the tools and solutions that can help them meet their environmental goals, additional costs can be avoided. When modernising a hospital, we should determine what final result that we want to achieve and manage the investment process in a sensible way.
We have a close analogy with the idea of ecodesign in the design and manufacture of medical devices. If, at the very beginning, you have an idea of how the system is to improve the environmental impact, patient satisfaction, and medical staff ergonomics, the final product intended for sale is going to be like that.
It appears that health care sustainability is feasible.
Absolutely. However, we need to be more engaged in showing and promoting the benefits of green transformation. We can also create recommendations for hospital directors on how to get started, including practical examples of green hospital implementation in Poland and other countries, more advanced in this regard.
