Louise, Joan and Denise accepted award April 15th, 2010

Employees from the Maryland Hospitals for a Healthy Environment join BBJ Publisher John Dinkel to accept the first place award in the Green Policy category.
Read more: Baltimore Business Journal: BBJ’s 2010 Green Business awards luncheon

See the article in the Baltimore Business Journal: Hospitals see green as healthy for finances April 2010 BBJ

Early Discounted Registration Ends This Friday, April 9^th. Register Now!

CleanMed is the most important meeting of the year for those engaged in sustainable health care.

This year’s meeting will be in Baltimore, MD. Learn more at www.cleanmed.org

NOTE: Those registering from Practice Greenhealth member facilities can register for half price.

Many of the pre-convention sessions have limited seating, so act now to reserve your place.

Keynote Speaker

Annie Leonard, Author, Activist. Annie Leonard is the author and host of the online film “The Story of Stuff,” a fast-paced, fact-filled expose on the hidden environmental and social costs of current systems of production and consumption, and author of the recently published book version of the film.

Stephen A. Owens Environmental Protection Agency, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances. At EPA only since 2009, Owens has established the EPA Office of Children’s Environmental Health. He is previously director, Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, where he made protecting children from toxic exposures a top priority, and among many other initiatives, helped launch Arizona’s Children’s Environmental Health Project and established an Office of Children’s Environmental Health at the department.

Other CleanMed highlights:

Five Preconference Sessions on sustainable food in healthcare, eco-pharmacology, climate and health literacy, hospital energy management, and greening the operating room.

Four local tours: 2 healthcare facilities; 2 local urban farms; plus a trip to opening day of University of MD Medical Center’s farmer’s market.

Hospital plenary session featuring executives of Baltimore area hospitals.

Practice Greenhealth Awards and Gala — dinner, awards, and dancing!

Plus more than 50 exciting sessions featuring national experts and health facility staff on topics such as sustainable health care economics, climate neutrality, sustainability in small facilities establishing baseline measurements, energy strategies, regenerative architecture, pesticides, hospital textiles, research needs and more.

Pre-Conference Events

Tuesday, May 11, 2010 – 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Creating a Menu of Change: Healthy Food in Healthcare

This half-day workshop is designed to help participants learn about the growing demand for sustainable and nutritious food in health care facilities. Attendees will learn about cost effective procurement strategies that emphasize health concerns that meet the unique needs of health care. Participants will also receive tools and references to help them implement innovative ideas into their food service and dietary programs.

Hospital Energy Management Workshop

The U.S. Department of Energy’s three-hour pre-conference Energy Management Training Workshop offers unique insights into energy-efficiency opportunities for your healthcare system.. This exciting session will provide strategies for making the business case to key decision-makers and setting effective energy goals; discuss energy analysis techniques’ Identify specific technical strategies and tips on maximizing energy-efficiency technology opportunities in key building systems, including lighting, HVAC, and central plant; and discuss

key elements involved in developing an effective energy management program, including review of successful case studies.

Strategies for Greening the Operating Room

This pre-conference session will examine best-in-class strategies for reducing the environmental impact of the operating room (OR), along with potential cost-savings and worker safety improvements. A follow-up to an innovative Practice Greenhealth “Greening the OR” symposium being held in late April, this session will walk through how the selected strategies were implemented at Practice Greenhealth member hospitals and then vetted by different OR stakeholders including perioperative nurses, physicians, engineers and executive-level administrators. Get your questions answered and learn how your hospital can take a leadership role by piloting and implementing these cutting edge technologies and management strategies at your facility.

Eco-Pharmacology: Minimizing Pharmaceutical Waste in Clinical Care

This presentation focuses on the clinician’s role in reducing pharmaceutical waste in clinical care. Emphasis is on the interdisciplinary approaches, “green teams” and prevention. The session will bring attendees up to date on the current knowledge of the environmental burden of pharmaceutical waste in aquatic life and its impact on the environment and potential effects on humans. Tools and resources for both nurses and physicians to use to minimize the risks associated with pharmaceutical pollution will be discussed along with problem solving skills regarding pharmaceutical waste in clinical settings. The session is prepared with a focus on the role of physicians and nurses. This is the only session at the pre-conference that carries CME credits. It will offer 3.0 CME credits for physicians.

Climate and Health Literacy

Health professionals will be on the front lines of any climate-related disaster, responding to the public health impacts of events around the globe. The need to treat illness and disease due to climate-related changes in our environment will continue to increase as global warming continues at an accelerated pace. At the same time, the healthcare industry will experience the climate crisis in its own operations, characterized by dramatically increasing energy costs, projected instability in the electric service provision grid, and intensified stressors placed on community health services, especially in times of disaster. This workshop will serve to educate participants about the science behind global warming, the environmental and health impacts of climate change, mitigation strategies that health care systems can implement to help reduce their emissions, and the work of the Climate and Health Literacy Consortium.

Tour of Local Baltimore Facilities: Baltimore Medical System and Health Care for the Homeless

Join us for a tour of two Baltimore facilities—Health Care for the Homeless and Baltimore Medical System—that have completed LEED-NC Gold and LEED-CI Platinum requirements, respectively. Health Care for the Homeless provides health-related services, education, and advocacy to reduce the incidence and burdens of homelessness. You will hear about the challenges and achievements of these exemplary projects and how these institutions are using their platforms to engage frequently marginalized communities in the importance of environmental health. You will find out how they met their sustainability goals, discuss how construction costs were managed and learn how these new green facilities are impacting their clients, staff and their entire organizations.

Post-Conference Workshop

Thursday, May 13, 2010 – 2:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Implementing Sustainability in Healthcare Facilities Workshop
Presented by Practice Greenhealth and sponsored by Johnson & Johnson

How can you make environmental sustainability ‘real’ in your facility? Here is an opportunity to interact and learn from people who have experience in hospitals all over the country. Based on Practice Greenhealth’s popular Sustainability Coordinator training course, this workshop focuses on the practical aspects of ‘greening’ healthcare through presentation, case studies, exercise, discussion and networking.

The Baltimore Times

March 26 – April 2, 2010

http://baltimoretimes-online.com//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1129&Itemid=31
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