Perioperative Sustainability Team

Most hospitals do not have a formal sustainability coordinator. However, many clinicians and staff recognize the importance of addressing environmental stewardship in health care. A strong, functional perioperative sustainability team requires engagement across several departments including:

1. Anesthesiology
2. Surgery
3. Perioperative nursing
4. Surgical technicians
5. Facilities services
6. Clinical engineering
7. Supply chain (purchasing)
8. Infection prevention and control
9. Environmental health services/waste disposal management
10. Central Sterilization and Supply
11. Health care informatics
12. Hospital administration

Ideally, the perioperative sustainability team collaborates closely with Clinical Quality Improvement to embed environmental stewardship in standard quality improvement practices and programs, working to apply the following:

1. Educate staff, initially and ongoing.
2. Identify and prioritize stewardship opportunities. (See Anesthesiology Sustainability Checklist).
3. Gather relevant data and assess baseline practices.
4. Design and implement solution(s).
5. Reassess practices and make iterative improvements.
6. Pilot projects locally and prepare for progressive scalability.
7. Redesign systems to facilitate best practices and maintain progress.
8. Share successes and challenges (e.g., through presentations and publications) to scale up impact beyond the organization.

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