Hospitals have room to improve when protecting the climate

Dr. Anna Levsen from the Deutsches Krankenhaus Institut, the German hospital association, also strives to improve processes. Her tech talk centers on "Circularity in the Healthcare Industry" on November 16 at 12:00 pm. Expanding on her presentation at the forum, Levsen calls attention to the strict limitations that hospitals face in their actions for sustainability and climate protection. However, she insists: "There is a big lever we can use here." Dr. Levsen sees the more sustainable use of, for example, large equipment as a chance. Outdated technical equipment is often completely renewed rather than repaired and kept in the system as a circular economy would do. One solution could be a service contract with a manufacturer for medical technology, who could maintain the device in good working order. "Hospitals then would not own a device which they would have to throw away in the end, but they would own a contract according to which the company would provide the device, which would be kept usable as a high-quality product", says Dr. Levsen. In this approach, manufacturers of medical technology would retain control over their devices.


The view must stretch to the entire energy and resource cycle

There is also room to improve for many hospitals when it comes to food, reducing the number of surplus meals and avoiding waste. From a clinical perspective, technologies used in telemedicine within radiology for example, also offer options to reduce the need for resources. If patients must be taken care of at home while receiving telemedical treatment, they also need the appropriate devices and need training in how to use them – and this is often difficult to achieve as Dr. Levsen summarizes: "A lot of things aren't thought through." Circular economy means that all processes from beginning to end would have to be thought through, and even single-use products could offer a more sustainable solution than expected, especially where hygiene is an issue.

"We talk a lot about reducing carbon emissions, but we also have to talk about keeping resources in the system", Dr. Levsen emphasizes. For her, it is clear: "There is a need for action." The main obstacle from the perspective of the hospital association are a lack of funds for urgently needed investments to protect the climate, which could also help to make the entire energy and resource cycle more efficient. Considering the current gas crisis. Dr. Levsen hopes that this will now set things into motion. Another challenge is to get hospital staff "on board". As a rule of thumb, about ten percent of energy consumption can be saved by the users. Even taking the stairs instead of the elevator or bringing your own coffee cup to work could help save resources.

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