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Home This Month E-Weekly Newsletter Building a Facility Article Archive Second Opinions
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Outpatient Surgery E-Weekly

Las Vegas GI Doc Facing 28 Felony Counts in Hep C Case

Las Vegas physician Dipak Desai, MD, will face all 28 felony charges filed against him for allegedly exposing patients to hepatitis C, according to ...

New Device Helps Obese Patients Breathe Easier

Rice University engineering students have come up with a novel approach for lifting the excess abdomen weight that can hamper obese patients' breath...

How Effective are Your Infection Prevention Efforts?

Are your infection prevention efforts up to speed? It's generally advisable to find out before a site surveyor from a regulating or accrediting agen...

Archive >  Going Green 2010

Planting the Seeds for Sustainable Suppliers

Convince vendors to green your purchasing and lessen the environmental impact of your facility.

Julie Teague, RN, BSN, CNOR; and Melissa Fischer, RN, MSN, CNOR

Reduce packaging
Packaging makes up 42% of hospital trash, which means nearly half the waste generated at your facility might not be directly related to patient care. Medical equipment and supplies, which usually ship in a lot of packing material to make sure nothing breaks during transport, are the biggest culprits. Once you've installed new equipment or received a shipment of supplies, what do you do with the crates, boxes and plastic wrap? For products that come with a lot of packaging, ask your vendors to remove and dispose of the packing waste. Encourage them to recycle the excess material. If they send it straight to the landfill, you might be saving money on trash removal, but you're not reducing the waste's overall environmental impact.

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