THe Healthcare Design: Existing Challenges and Future Directions for an Environmental, Economic, and Social Approach to Sustainability
1. Read the article “Sustainable Healthcare Design: Existing Challenges and Future Directions for an Environmental, Economic, and Social Approach to Sustainability” located in this week’s Electronic Reserve Readings.
(a) What does this article say about the sustainable health care for the environment, economic and social approach?
(b) Class, do you think people would be more protective of the environment if they understood the close relationship between the environment and human health? How does one increase this awareness?
(2) Environment and core values
Posted by Dr. Tricia Jenkins, Nov 14, 2017, 10:48 AM
Historically, environmental performance has not been thought of as a core business value for hospitals. Little attention was given to the environmental impact of healthcare organizations, except guided by regulatory requirements. Schettler (2001) presents an evolving continuum of the changing nature of organization behaviors, three tiers of environmental performance, as healthcare organizations begin to recognize the symbiotic relationship with the environment.
The first level, Tier 1, consists of mandatory compliance behaviors with regulations established by the Environmental Protection Agency and other state and local agencies. The environmental performance goal of Tier 1 organizations is to meet regulatory requirements in order to stay in business.
Tier II healthcare institutions have moved beyond only compliance. They are concerned about public health and their impact on environment, often propelled by economic incentives or community forces. They may take action to reduce medical waste or to phase out use of mercury-containing devices and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics, where possible, without sacrificing quality of care. Tier III organizations understand the link between health and the environment and seek to align with the environment, with long term plans to reduce their ecological footprint (Pencheon, 2015). At Tier III, environmental performance is institutionalized as a core value at all levels.
References
Pencheon, D. (2015). Making health care more sustainable: the case of the English NHS. Public Health, 129(10), 1335-1343.
Schettler, T. (2001, May 4). Environmental challenges and visions of sustainable health care, Paper presented at CleanMed Conference, Boston, MA.
(a).How does the level of performance behaviors reflect an organization’s core values? How does one move an organization further along the continuum?
(3) .Read the article “Optimal Decision Model for Sustainable Hospital Building Renovation-A Case Study of a Vacant School Building Converting into a Community Public Hospital” in this week’s Electronic Reserve Readings.
(a) In what way did this community Renovation help in this decision modeling to build this hospital?
(4). .Read the article “Optimal Decision Model for Sustainable Hospital Building Renovation-A Case Study of a Vacant School Building Converting into a Community Public Hospital” in this week’s Electronic Reserve Readings.
(a) Discuss sustainable health care facility design and its implications.