Environmental Sustainability in Canadian Critical Care: A Nationwide Survey Study on Medical Waste Management

Create intensive care green teams, there is no time to waste

“… Staff education and pharmacy process changes resulted in a 32.3% improvement in proper waste disposal in a 41-bed ICU in São Paulo, Brazil [ 14 ]. Changes in supply stocking resulted in an 80% reduction in the amount of unused equipment waste in a 16-bed ICU in Canada [ 15 ]. …”

“…Changes in supply stocking resulted in an 80% reduction in the amount of unused equipment waste in a 16-bed ICU in Canada [ 15 ].…”

Past, present, and future of sustainable intensive care: narrative review and a large hospital system experience

“…The investigation of daily and best practices has centered on the actions of managing waste (without compromising safe and quality care) such as “reduce, reuse, recycle, and rethink” [ 15 , 18 , 19 ]. Those actions have been discussed alongside the incorporation of Lean Six Sigma—which emphasizes, among other process improvement techniques, continuous improvement in waste elimination [ 26 ]—and other quality management initiatives into critical care settings [ 25 , 27 ]. A recent systematic review of waste management practices [ 25 ] found various types of interventions used in longitudinal studies including: policy changes, educational programs, operational procedure changes, waste sorting changes, Lean Six Sigma/total quality management, supply changes, and waste disposal changes.…”

“…The waste management practices elicited from surveys, interviews, and observations of critical care professionals in Canada and Finland [ 27 – 29 ] have shown a common tendency to discuss barriers and facilitators to environmental sustainability based on patient care, organizational, and technological contexts. For instance, Kalogirou et al [ 29 ] found that patient care and organizational contexts may physically and culturally influence the capabilities of professionals to promote and engage with responsible practices.…”

“…Nurses participating in semi-structured interviews viewed environmentally sustainable practices to be at odds with both patient care priorities (e.g., patient care workload did not leave bandwidth to consider the environment) and with the organization’s priorities, support, and culture for strategic and operational management (e.g., when their organization puts budget as the top priority). On the other hand, Kallio et al [ 28 ] and Yu and Baharmand [ 27 ] emphasized the utilization of functional facilities for waste sorting, training, and visible internal communications and reporting related to environmental sustainability.…”