White House Event to Address Healthier Hospitals Initiative’s Progress on Reducing Cost and Improving Environmental Sustainability in Hospitals

 

 

 

 

Contact:    Susan Miller, 703-283-5144

What:  – (July 23, 2012) The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) will host top Administration officials, hospital administrators and policy experts for a discussion, “Greening America’s Hospitals,” highlighting the Healthier Hospitals Initiative’s (HHI) role in improving hospitals’ operations and business models by adopting sustainability initiatives.  Two panel discussions, “Fostering a Culture of Environmental Sustainability” and “Healthier Hospitals Initiative: Transforming the Supply Chain,” will address the benefits of increasing sustainability efforts in hospitals and spotlight the linkages between environmental sustainability and economic profitability, from saving thousands on energy, waste, and water bills to creating a safer and healthier atmosphere for patients and hospital employees.

As research increasingly links environmental factors with chronic disease, Inova has joined the Initiative to adopt sustainability efforts that will promote health and well-being for patients, hospital staff and members of the community.

 

Why:   Hospitals have enormous potential for incorporating innovative and efficient design into their business models.  HHI is helping hospitals achieve lower costs and better patient care by challenging them to improve operations in six areas:

• Engaged Leadership Challenge: engage in leadership on environmental health and sustainability
• Healthier Food Challenge: serve healthier foods and beverages
• Leaner Energy Challenge: reduce energy use
• Less Waste Challenge: reduce waste and recycle
• Safer Chemicals Challenge: use safer chemicals
• Smarter Purchasing Challenge: purchase environmentally preferable products

As a result of these efforts, more than 500 hospitals have taken steps to improve the environment in which people live, work and receive care.

 

Who:   Senior Administration officials from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and the Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge will be in attendance.  

Key panelists include:

• J. Knox Singleton, CEO, Inova Health System
• Seema Wadhwa, Director, Healthier Hospitals Initiative

• Gary Cohen, President, Health Care Without Harm, and Founder, Healthier Hospitals Initiative
• Kathy Gerwig, Vice President, Workplace Safety and Environmental Stewardship Officer, Kaiser Permanente
• Al Iannuzzi, Senior Director Product Stewardship, Worldwide Environment, Health & Safety at Johnson & Johnson
• John Messervy, AIA, Director of Capital and Facility Planning, Partners HealthCare
• Brad Perkins, MD, Executive Vice President for Strategy and Innovation and Chief Transformation Officer, Vanguard Health Systems
• Blair Sadler, Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement; former CEO of Rady Children’s Hospital
• Jeff Thompson, MD, CEO, Gundersen Health System
• Christina Vernon, Executive Sustainability Officer, Cleveland Clinic

 

When: July 24, 2012 from 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. EDT

 

Where: The discussion will be live-streamed on the White House website at http://www.whitehouse.gov/live.

 

Follow the discussion on Twitter by using #healthierhospitals

 

For more information, please contact Susan Miller 703-283-5144

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About Inova

Inova is a not-for-profit health care system located in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, serving over two million people with over 1,700 licensed beds based in Northern Virginia.  Inova consists of five hospitals including the area’s only Level 1 Trauma Center and Level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care unit.  Inova encompasses many health services including the nationally and internationally recognized Inova Heart and Vascular Institute (IHVI), Inova Translational Medicine Institute (ITMI) on genomics, Inova Neuroscience Institute and Inova Children’s Hospital.  Inova’s mission is to improve the health of the diverse community it serves through excellence in patient care, education and research.  More information and statistics about Inova is at www.inova.org.

 

About the Healthier Hospitals Initiative

The Healthier Hospitals Initiative (HHI) is a national campaign to implement a completely new approach to improving environmental health and sustainability in the health care sector. Eleven of the largest, most influential U.S. health systems, comprising approximately 500 hospitals with more than $20 billion in purchasing power, worked with Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), the Center for Health Design and Practice Greenhealth to create HHI as a guide for hospitals to improve sustainability in six key areas: engaged leadership, healthier foods, leaner energy, less waste, safer chemicals, and smarter purchasing. Sponsoring health systems include Advocate Health Care, Bon Secours Health System, Catholic Health Initiatives, Dignity Health (formerly Catholic Healthcare West), Hospital Corporation of America, Inova Health System, Kaiser Permanente, MedStar Health, Partners HealthCare, Tenet Health Systems and Vanguard Health Systems. More information is available at www.healthierhospitals.org. Follow HHI on Twitter at @HHIorg and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/healthierhospitalsinitiative.