Making Hospitals Sustainable: Towards Greener, Fairer and More Prosperous Services

Abstract

The growing demand for hospital services and the pressure to incorporate sustainable strategies into hospital management have led hospitals to rethink their business model and seek new ways to manage their operations. Corporate sustainability is an important way to make hospitals more sustainable and competitive. Therefore, this paper proposes a framework that contains the drivers for the management of sustainability in hospitals (SH), developed through the content analysis method. As a result, this study proposes five drivers: toward the circular economy; making sustainable buildings; adopting knowledge management and organizational culture; employing management systems, tools, and methods; and applying technological innovations. This framework contributes in a managerial way to helping managers of hospitals in managing sustainability; making their businesses fairer, greener, and more prosperous; and fulfilling their commitments to the well-being of their employees and society, providing a basis for moving toward the premises of the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda. This study also scientifically contributes to the academic maturation of the topic by systematizing elements and adding insights to the state of the art on SH. It is recommended that future studies add new elements to the drivers or even propose new drivers for the continuous scientific advancement of this topic.

Pregnancy Outcomes in SARS-CoV-2-Positive Patients: A 20-Month Retrospective Analysis of Delivery Cases

“…During the first three waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Clinical County Hospital of Timisoara, a tertiary hospital affiliated with the “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, hospitalized all COVID-19 patients from Western Romania with obstetrical or gynecological problems [ 30 ]. While effectiveness of the health services is a complex challenge encompassing multicriterial aspects, finding the workable practices appropriate to the pandemic crisis increased the demands on the hospital’s management and every healthcare worker, especially the young trainees [ 31 , 32 ]. In this worldwide pandemic crisis, our hospital as a whole, and staff at all levels, faced disruptive challenges to their efforts to continue providing the healthcare services and preserving safe maternity and neonatal care and paying attention to all pregnant women, especially to those with chronic pathologies or pregnancy-related comorbidities [ 33 , 34 , 35 ].…”

Evaluating Portuguese Public Hospitals Performance: Any Difference Before and During COVID-19?

“…Overall, global performance is expected to have worsened from 2020 onwards, compromising the economic, financial, and social sustainability of the NHS. Meanwhile, ensuring the implementation of knowledge management and organizational culture, while employing management systems/tools/methods and fulfilling hospital managers' commitments to the well-being of employees and society are cornerstones or drivers for the management of sustainability in hospitals [46].…”

Testing of a Multiple Criteria Assessment Tool for Healthcare Facilities Quality and Sustainability: The Case of German Hospitals

“…Hence analyzing and assessing the sustainability of hospitals could support the overall healthcare sector's ecological transition [10][11][12][13]. Research about hospital sustainability evaluation has increased over recent years [14][15][16][17][18], but there are few cases of hospital departments trying to reduce their ecological footprint in practice [19]. However, the scope of evaluation is still limited and reminiscent of silo mentality.…”

“…It is composed by a survey of 199 closed survey questions that subsequently get converted into binary values. In this way the tool provides a hierarchical scoring model to showcase how hospitals perform in terms of Social, Environmental, and Organisational Quality and sustainability [17,38]. Each of those three macro-areas is further subdivided into five to six criteria to understand the outcome in more detail.…”