For Immediate Release
Mercy Saves Local Landfills and Big Bucks
 Midwest — In just nine months, Mercy – a group of 30
hospitals in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma – has already saved
almost $800,000 and diverted more than 20,000 pounds of waste from local
landfills. And by all estimates, Mercy stands to save $2 million
annually and some 30 tons from landfills once all facilities are at full
speed with a new green initiative that involves reprocessing medical
devices.
“The health industry is second only to the food
industry in contributing to our nation’s landfills,” said Lynn Britton,
Mercy president and CEO. “Not only is Mercy impacting our environment by
reprocessing medical devices, we are putting the savings back into
patient care. This is just one of Mercy’s strategies to reduce health
care costs while increasing the quality of patient care.”
Following stringent guidelines set by the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration, hospitals across the country are beginning to
revisit reprocessing devices such as surgical scissors, drills and many
opened but unused items. For years, U.S. hospitals have reprocessed
devices in-house or through outside vendors but over time, with a more
disposable society, landfills are overflowing.
According to a March 2010 study published in the
Association of American Medical Colleges journal, devices which are
properly reprocessed “do not present an increased health risk when
compared with new, non-reprocessed devices.”
“Now, to ensure safety and efficiency, as well as
comply with FDA regulations, Mercy is partnering with a leading single
outside vendor which disassembles, cleans, inspects, certifies,
sterilizes and restores devices to manufacturer specifications and then
returns items to Mercy facilities,” said Stacy Howard, RN, MHA, MBA,
director of Mercy’s ROi operational support services. “They meticulously
track how many times each device has been processed and recycle them
when they need to be retired.”
Along with reprocessing, here are some other ways
Mercy is green:
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Mercy Medical Center in Rogers, Arkansas, is one
of only 21 hospitals in the country currently Energy Star certified,
meaning it uses less energy, is less expensive to operate and causes
fewer greenhouse gas emissions than its peers, according to EPA
standards.
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Mercy Data Center in Washington, Missouri, opening
in summer of 2010, was designed to be compliant with Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design – the standard for green building
design. Case in point: of the 255 tons of steel used, 100 percent came
from recycled sources.
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St. John’s Mercy Medical Center in St. Louis,
Missouri, will open a new patient tower this summer utilizing light
harvesting.
Many Mercy facilities are also switching to green
cleaning chemicals, reducing utility costs, doing away with water
bottles and recycling everything from cardboard to batteries.
“No snowflake ever feels responsible for the
avalanche but we are all responsible for this planet,” said Sister Mary
Roch Rocklage, RSM, Sisters of Mercy health ministry liaison. “Across
Mercy, our 36,000 co-workers are impacting our communities by taking
care of the planet God gifted us.”
Press release dated: April 12, 2010
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