Reducing the Carbon Footprint of the Operating Theatre: A Multicentre Quality Improvement Report

Southorn, T.; Norrish, Alan; Gardner, Karen; Baxandall, R

doi:10.1177/175045891302300605

Cited by 43 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…A recent position paper from the American College of Physicians called for ‘the broader health care community throughout the world [to] engage in environmentally sustainable practices that reduce carbon emissions’ [ 13 ], and in 2018 the British Medical Journal published an editorial calling on medical organizations to divest from fossil fuels [ 14 ]. Multiple papers interrogate the environmental impact of laparoscopic surgery, otorhinolaryngology, endoscopic urological procedures, anesthetic equipment, acute care, outpatient care and the operating room and hospitals in general, and discuss techniques to mitigate these effects [ 8 , 9 , [15] , [16] , [17] , [18] , [19] , [20] , [21] , [22] , [23] , [24] ]. The broader scientific community has discussed the environmental implications of conferences [ 1 , 25 , 26 ], and concern regarding the same issue has been raised within the medical community [ 27 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medical conferences in the era of environmental conscientiousness and a global health crisis: The carbon footprint of presenter flights to pre-COVID pediatric urology conferences and a consideration of future options

Milford

Rickard

Chua

et al. 2021

Journal of Pediatric Surgery

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Introduction Medical conferences are integral to academic medicine, with academic posters being a well-established medium for presenting research. However, conferences carry an ecological footprint due to greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, traditional conference formats have recently not been possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Herein we examine the carbon footprint associated with travel by presenting delegates to the Fall SPU conferences from 2013 to 2019, and the 2015 ESPU conference. Methods Online programs for the targeted SPU Fall meetings and the 2015 ESPU Annual Meeting were retrospectively reviewed. Variables collected included meeting location and presenter home base. Distance traveled by the presenter, and likely CO 2 e of this return trip were estimated using online calculators. Analysis was performed using the Kruskal-Wallis-H test with pairwise comparisons to detect differences in round trip distances and CO 2 e between meeting locations. Results Six Fall SPU conferences and one ESPU conference were reviewed. The majority of presenters were from the region (North America and Europe, respectively), for both SPU and ESPU. The median round trip distance was 2596.34 miles (IQR 1420.96–4438.30), and the median CO 2 e 0.61 metric tons (IQR 0.36–1.02). We found that the distances traveled to conferences in the Western USA and Europe were slightly further than those to conferences in Central Canada and the Southern US. The difference in CO 2 e between these locations did not achieve statistical significance. Conclusion Presenter travel to and from pediatric urological conferences generates an important carbon footprint and may not be possible in the medium-term future due to a global pandemic. We should explore strategies to allow meetings and knowledge exchange to continue whilst reducing the need for travel and the ecological burden of conferences. Level of Evidence Level III: Most comparative level of evidence.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Medical conferences in the era of environmental conscientiousness and a global health crisis: The carbon footprint of presenter flights to pre-COVID pediatric urology conferences and a consideration of future options

Milford

Rickard

Chua

et al. 2021

Journal of Pediatric Surgery

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Each OR has the potential to produce up to 2300 kg of waste per year (Southorn et al, 2013). There is a consensus within the literature that up to 80% of all OR waste is generated during the set up before the patient actually arrives for their operation (Donaldson, 2000; Southorn et al, 2013). The majority of OR waste comes from disposable surgical supplies, personal protective equipment, drapes, and plastic wrappers (Conrardy et al, 2010; Stall et al, 2013).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Over the past forty years, the Australian healthcare system has become one of the largest contributors of waste nationwide, second only to the food industry (Lee and Mears, 2012a), generating up to 236 million kilograms (kg) of waste per year (Foran, 2015). This upsurge is mirrored internationally in the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK), with health facilities producing 1.8 billion kg and 181,000kg of waste, respectively, per year (Conrardy et al, 2010; Kagoma et al, 2012; Lee and Mears, 2012a; Southorn et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The incineration process alone produces a huge amount of GHG emissions. To put it into perspective, incinerating 1 kg of clinical waste produces roughly 3 kg of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) (Southorn et al, 2013). The United Nations Environmental Program (2012) estimated that a single patient hospital bed produces up to 0.87 kg of infectious waste per day.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Operating room greening initiatives – the old, the new, and the way forward: A narrative review

2018

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Healthcare waste is a rampant issue in Australian hospitals. The operating room (OR) contributes disproportionately to total hospital waste. There has been considerable research in the literature concentrating on strategies to improve OR and hospital waste accumulation, in an attempt to provide guidance and direction on how to reduce the healthcare ecological footprint. We reviewed the literature for leading greening initiatives currently utilised in the OR in Australia and internationally. This narrative literature review focuses on the trend of OR greening initiatives over the last 25 years, comparing different innovative approaches, the successes and setbacks, and the financial implications of initiatives. A variety of measures that hospital management, surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses and other healthcare personnel can take to reduce the ecological footprint of their healthcare facility are outlined. Greening initiatives include reducing, recycling, reusing, rethinking and researching, as well as novel technology and smarter architectural design. We also evaluated the barriers to improving waste management, which include lack of leadership, misconceptions among staff, and an overall resistance to change. In conclusion, in a world where greenhouse gas emissions cause unprecedented climate change and landfill space is finite, it is incumbent upon hospitals to help reduce the environmental impact of their facility. Reducing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions would moderate the incidence of human disease, save money for the healthcare system and society as a whole, and contribute to a safer and healthier world we all would like to live in.

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Toward Environmentally sustainable surgery: Waste recycling in general surgery operating room. Preliminary cognitive audit

Romano,

Giuliani,

Muselli

et al. 2024

World j. surg.

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BackgroundIt is common practice to classify waste from the operating theater as “clinical”. The development of sustainable policies could have a significant impact. In the first phase, our study aims to measure general surgery waste and to assess the potential financial and carbon savings of appropriate recycling. Based on this information, we will plan for a second phase in which educational interventions will be put in place to promote waste segregation in surgical environments.MethodsWe conducted a preliminary cognitive audit of the most common general surgery procedures to examine the types and quantity of waste produced. We calculated the economic and environmental impacts of disposing of waste treated as clinical or general, and we measured how much of it could actually be recycled. Then, we attempted a projection of the savings we could expect if recycling policies were implemented.ResultsWe found that more than 30% of total waste was actually recyclable. Considering a projection based on annual procedures performed in our hospital, we estimated that for each kind of surgical procedure, we could expect a reduction of the carbon footprint by approximately 6%, and an average 3% reduction in costs every year, only by improving waste segregation in the general surgery operating rooms.ConclusionThere could be a great potential for reducing environmental and economic footprint of the operating rooms by promoting waste recycling protocols. Surgeons are in a unique position to implement for these protocols. Interventions should be codesigned with theater staff to create a “green culture”.

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Reducing the Carbon Footprint of the Operating Theatre: A Multicentre Quality Improvement Report

Cited by 43 publications

References 3 publications

Medical conferences in the era of environmental conscientiousness and a global health crisis: The carbon footprint of presenter flights to pre-COVID pediatric urology conferences and a consideration of future options

Medical conferences in the era of environmental conscientiousness and a global health crisis: The carbon footprint of presenter flights to pre-COVID pediatric urology conferences and a consideration of future options

Operating room greening initiatives – the old, the new, and the way forward: A narrative review

Toward Environmentally sustainable surgery: Waste recycling in general surgery operating room. Preliminary cognitive audit

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