Conservation 101: the Compete to Conserve Blog

photo credit: otisarchives3

Hospitals use a lot of energy, and not surprisingly the healthcare sector ranks second in energy intensity.  Hospitals use 836 trillion BTUs of energy annually (over 2.5 times the energy intensity and CO2 emissions of commercial office buildings), produce 28.575 million tons of CO2 and over 30 lbs of CO2 emissions per square foot on an annual basis.  It would logically follow that Hospitals have at their disposal myriad resources to make a change toward sustainability.  Regrettably, this is not the case.

While my approach in trying to make a difference and improve our environment has been deliberately non-partisan, at some point it is necessary to take a definitive stand on something, even if that “something” is mired in controversy.  Working in hospital administration these past six years, I fear that the healthcare system in California today is so dysfunctional that it borders on the edge of cataclysmic failure.  Surprisingly, this systemic problem has not received the necessary attention a crisis of such magnitude should mandate. (more…)

photo credit: otisarchives2

In the world of medical imaging, picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) are computers or networks dedicated to the storage, retrieval, distribution and presentation of images.  Typically PACS handles the gamut of medical imaging instruments, including Magnetic Resonance (MRIs, or imaging which uses a powerful magnetic field, radio waves and a computer to produce detailed pictures of organs, soft tissues, bone and virtually all other internal body structures), Positron Emission Tomography (PET scans, which accurately image the cellular function of the human body), and Computed Tomography (CT or CT Scan, which uses special x-ray equipment to produce multiple images or pictures of the inside of the body and a computer to join them together in cross-sectional views of the area being studied).

A PACS system usually includes a state-of-the-art Radiology Information System enabling images and data to be delivered to physicians anywhere in the world with access to a high speed broadband internet connection.  As the medium for medical imaging becomes more sophisticated, a PACS system is necessary to take full advantage of the higher level diagnostic studies.  Essentially, because the technological advances in MR, CT and PET imaging are so great, traditional “films” no longer suffice for an accurate patient study.

Translation: The radiology equipment in health care facilities has become so high-tech, doctors now need super-fancy machines to read the results. (more…)

photo credit: boliston

Other than a possible seismic issue here and there, and maybe some other obvious exceptions (we’ll just let that surgeon wash those hands and arms with the water running for a full 300 seconds, just in case), healthcare facilities around the nation are jumping on, and occasionally off, the green bandwagon.  Green is clean, and nobody likes a dirty hospital. Indeed, it is the fantasy of every soon-to-be hospital patient that he or she is greeted at the door by Florence Nightengale and then whisked away to a private, state-of-the-art patient room complete with satellite television and high speed internet.

Being a green hospital, however, is not so easy, and many of the suggested green practices may actually compromise patient care.  Green cleaning products, mercury, lighting and basic hospital equipment are just four of many examples currently waiting at that crossroads where “green” public policy and generally accepted healthcare practices collide. (more…)

photo credit: otisarchives3

California hospitals will spend about $100 billion before 2013 in order to meet state seismic safety standards.  On top of that, the nation-wide mortgage and credit crisis more or less doubles that $100 billion price tag in the event that these hospitals do not have the cash on hand.  With construction expenses reaching an all-time high, a 100-bed hospital may spend close to $100 million to build a replacement facility.  That same facility will be lucky to break $50 million in revenue (revenue, not profit) in any given year.

This incomprehensible financial dilemma, only five years away but the result of a shifting in the earth’s core somewhere around Northridge in January 1994, is yet another example of inconsistent public policy concerns converging in the health care sector.  If this $100 billion expense was not bad enough, hospitals now face increasing pressure to be more “green”.

Caught in the middle of a financial crisis, a healthcare crisis, a gas crisis, an ever-present earthquake crisis, and now an environmental crisis, will tomorrow’s hospitals in California be yesterday’s 8-track tapes?  While the ultimate fate of California’s hospitals has yet to be written, there are a handful of facilities throughout the state actually trying to be both seismically sound and green.

(more…)