Transcripts

"Bill of Health"-Hospitals Go Green

SUSIE GHARIB: With more companies adopting environmentally-friendly business practices, hospitals are trying to be greener in how they deliver quality healthcare. As Jeff Yastine reports in tonight's "Bill of Health," hospital administrators are finding that being eco-friendly can also be friendly to the bottom line. JEFF YASTINE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Broward Health in Fort Lauderdale is one of the nation's five largest public healthcare systems. Staffers here are learning it's not only possible but preferable to be environmentally friendly. Administrators used to pay to have haulers take away paper trash and old medical records. Now, that same paper -- 62,000 pounds a year -- generates cash by being shredded under secure conditions and sold for recycling. The hospital system now recycles or reuses about a third of its total waste. That includes not only paper and cardboard, but old computers and medical devices which would otherwise end up in landfills. Anna Gilmour of the organization Health Care Without Harm says hospitals are learning they can serve the environment and the bottom line.

ANNA GILMORE HALL, RN, EXEC. DIR., HEALTH CARE WITHOUT HARM: Senior leaders in hospitals -- the CEOs, CFOs, the COOs and one of the reasons that they're interested in doing this is because of the long-term financial savings that can occur. In 2000, the EPA put out a report where they stated that $1 of savings in operations is equivalent to $20 of new revenue for the healthcare system.

YASTINE: Broward Health's Senior Vice President Joe Rogers says there are other benefits for organizations like his.

JOSEPH ROGERS, SR. VICE PRESIDENT, BROWARD HEALTH: In many cases, I think health systems might forget or overlook the brand benefits to being green, which are tremendous. We are a health system and there's a tremendous link between the concept of being green and good health and it becomes very important for health systems to try to tie into that.

YASTINE: Hospitals have made big leaps in going green since the 1990s, when thousands still operated large onsite waste incinerators. Now, fewer than a hundred do. Many hospitals are also phasing out the use of toxic compounds. Broward health safety coordinator Patricia O'Rourke says the system recycles some lab chemicals and is using less-toxic alternatives.

PATRICIA O'ROURKE, SAFETY COORDINATOR, BROWARD HEALTH: So the patient always comes first. So when you're reducing hazardous materials and you're reducing bio-hazard waste and other exposures or utilizations of materials in a hospital that could be toxic, you're helping the patient overall, but also you're helping the employees.

YASTINE: The ultimate in environmentally friendly healthcare is new hospitals that are certified green. Those buildings have window, lighting and plumbing systems that are designed to be as efficient as possible. Even solar panels are used in some projects. The cost for building green hospitals is about 2 percent higher than building to code, but industry executives say those investments usually pay for themselves within just a few years of operation. Jeff Yastine, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Bill of Health.