Health Care Sustainability Solutions We have heard for years the importance of reducing our carbon footprint on our environment. To reduce our carbon footprints, we must first learn what that means. Greenhouse gases that are produced to directly and indirectly support human activities is the technical definition of a carbon footprint (What is a carbon footprint - definition, 2018). What exactly does that mean to those working in the health care field? How can a health care facility reduce their carbon footprint when everything from the energy used to operate lights and medical devices to waste disposal is essential in keeping the facility operational? Surprisingly, the answer to those questions are relatively simple when you look at the …show more content…
They must come up with strategies and solutions that work within their specific environment. One such example of this is in energy planning. Older hospitals need to re-evaluate their current equipment and maintenance of that equipment. Replacement of old components with energy efficient components, recalibrating operating sensors and regular cleaning will optimize facility operations thereby reducing operating costs and aid in the promotion of community health (Biason, 2016). Other areas inside the health care facilities that will aid in the reduction of carbon footprints is recycling when possible. Devices within the facility that are made for one-time usage can easily be recycled reducing the amount of waste produced by the facility. Eliminating unnecessary use of paper and paper products will also assist in reducing the amount of waste as well as reducing the impact of the environment in destruction of trees necessary to make the paper products (Green Guide for Health Care, 2018). The Global Green and Healthy Hospitals bring to light global networking of more than 1,000 members in 51 countries on 6 continents representing over 32,100 hospitals and health care facilities dedicated to reducing their environmental footprints (About GGHH, 2018). With annual increases in membership and through their continued efforts, this global network is reducing the carbon footprints made by health care facilities one step at a
Perspective Stakeholders in health and social care can be referred to a person, group or organization that has interest or concern in an organization. Stakeholders can affect or be affected by the organizations actions, objectives, and policies. Some examples of key stakeholders in health and social care are inspecting bodies, managers, employers, government and its agencies, owners of care services, owners of local businesses, suppliers, trade unions, service users, and the community which the organization serves. For example, a local health and well-being strategy may be developed by;
The United States is projected to spend nearly 20 percent of the Gross Domestic Product on healthcare by 2020.According to a Mckinsey study $447 billion of the 1.7 trillion the U.S. spent on healthcare in 2003 was in excess of what it should have spent based on its wealth. A 1 % increase in the rate of health-spending results in an increase of about $2 trillion in spending on health over the next 10 years.
Generational conflicts, political strife, environmental regulations, stakeholders in big oil, and many more hurdles affect the push to fully sustainable economies around the world and even here in America. In a world where coal, oil, and natural gas are limited, countries are gobbling it all up as fast as they can before other poorer countries come on the grid. Even though America and other countries gobble up these resources the life of the people is still a struggle to meet basic needs. Sustainability is an intermingling of resource use and protection of the “quality of life”, it is met by using resources sparingly and by recycling or reducing the use of other non-renewable resources to provide for our immediate need, but also to conserve and protect the needs of the next generation and to improve the quality of all the lives to come.
2.3 Explain how the health and social care practitioner own values, beliefs and experiences can influence delivery of care.
“Homelessness can be the cause as well as the result of poor health” (Wise, Emily, Debrody, Corey &ump; Paniucki, Heather, 1999, p.445). This is a reoccurring theme that has existed within the homeless population for decades. While programs to help reduce this constant circle are being put in place all over the country to provide medical services for the homeless to be able to go to, many are still finding that health care needs for individuals as well as homeless communities are not being met. Many studies have been completed that study both the opinion on healthcare by those who have access to sufficient health care and homeless people’s perceptions on health care administration. While many companies are working to provide more personal health care systems, it appears that the larger problem is with a lack of people know about the health care systems that are in place to help them. Companies are trying to advertise more often to inform homeless people that there is health care out there for them.
The built environment undoubtedly affects the quality and care to the patients and family members. Patients and family members are expecting from a health care organization a well built environment that is suitable and accessible, caring for family, encouraging or beneficial to wellbeing, confidential, considerate, secure and safe. The environment checklist is an assessment tool that will help healthcare organizational designers and health care administrations accumulate information about consumer’s needs, measure satisfaction, and provide facility comparisons for molding the industry’s best practices. I reviewed the environmental checklist in my facility and discussed with my nursing manager the areas that need improvement and the areas that performing well. The three most important areas that I would address that needs to recover are 1.Information systems in place, 2.Staffing requirements and 3.Patients discharge.
There is an ongoing debate on the topic of how to fix the health care system in America. Some believe that there should be a Single Payer system that ensures all health care costs are covered by the government, and the people that want a Public Option system believe that there should be no government interference with paying for individual’s health care costs. In 1993, President Bill Clinton introduced the Health Security Act. Its goal was to provide universal health care for America. There was a lot of controversy throughout the nation whether this Act was going in the right direction, and in 1994, the Act died. Since then there have been multiple other attempts to fix the health care situation, but those attempts have not succeeded. The Affordable Care Act was passed in the senate on December 24, 2009, and passed in the house on March 21, 2010. President Obama signed it into law on March 23 (Obamacare Facts). This indeed was a step forward to end the debate about health care, and began to establish the middle ground for people in America. In order for America to stay on track to rebuild the health care system, we need to keep going in the same direction and expand our horizons by keeping and adding on to the Affordable Care Act so every citizen is content.
Health issues throughout the human lifespan are always hard to deal with. In this essay, I will give examples of different health issues that occur throughout the lifespan of a human. The seven different stages of a human’s lifespan include: infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood. By the concluding paragraph of this essay, you will have gained knowledge of some of the health related issues of a given person throughout their lifespan.
Healthcare plays an important role in almost every person’s life at one point or another. Many times, one can get caught without, or underinsured and it can be detrimental to their livelihood. With the rising cost of healthcare, it is likely that having a national healthcare policy in place, and as an individual, being able to afford and obtain adequate health insurance has not been required until now. With the new national healthcare plan, it is required for all citizens to obtain and maintain some sort of public or private insurance policy. The rising costs can be attributed to many things. A significant reason for the astronomical cost of health care is because of the staggering amount of uninsured or underinsured individuals receiving medical attention and almost many never paying the bill. Those who do have insurance have seen a gradual increase in their premiums and deductibles to make up for this.
To comprehend our current health care system, it is important to understand the history and how health care has evolved in the United States. The healthcare system we have now didn't always exist. Believe it or not, before 1920, most people would not of known what health care coverage meant! So how did the United States turn into one of the few developed countries lacking nationwide healthcare? Understanding U.S. healthcare history will help you understand the dynamics that built the system that, we struggle with today. Furthermore, I will make conclusions on the current problems we are facing.
...ue to numerous medical errors. With the amount of medical errors that currently do occur which is a current health care issue it cost the health care billions of dollar each year to fix the mistakes that were made.
Going green in the workplace is a new trend in business. In choosing to go green in the workplace you may be challenged by an elevated initial start-up costs, however savings earned from this investment will more than pay for those initial costs in the future. Many people see this as a controversial issue, and granted it does have its own unique set of pro and cons, but if a business makes careful choices going green can prove to be very rewarding. Companies are doing this to save money on energy expenses as well as deploying it as a means to help reduce the carbon foot-print they are leaving behind.
In an era when the resources for health promotion are limited and the expectations as to what can be achieved are high, sustainability has become a familiar catch-cry (Swerissen & Crisp. 2014.) Health and sustainability are parallel challenges (Cunningham et al. 2010) as the economic, social and environmental characteristics of a sustainable society are the same as those of a healthy society (Griffiths 2006.). The precise definition of sustainability is still subject to debate. It has no single or universally accepted definition. It is not easily captured in a concise definition and means different things to different people or concepts (Auditor General of Victoria 2004). In this case sustainability will be the development aiming to maintain or sustain conditions in order to provide improved long-term economic health and a stable social and cultural quality system to preserve and protect the environment (Gremm et al. 2008). A crucial focus to sustainability includes preserving the environment so that the needs of future generations can also be met indefinitely in the future. Public health programs constitute an important method of improving health and program sustainability (Pluye et al 2004) as partnerships between health organisations and local authority planning departments concerning spacial planning are important to ensure the design of healthy sustainable communities (Griffiths 2006.).
When every IT professional starts their journey into the IT Sector, they are bound to come across social issues which will have to be dealt with professionally. One important Issue is being green in Information Technology. The earth’s resources are continuously becoming scarce whilst the demand for them increases sharply. Every IT professional should understand that power consumption does not cover the whole green IT spectrum. Recycling dangerous electronic waste, optimising/virtualising servers to distribute workloads, having a long term green policy, reducing your workplace carbon foot print such as the paperless desk and an efficient data centre-business continuity model; these are a few examples of issues that professional must consider as these issues all occur in the green IT world.
Health care has always been an interesting topic all over the world. Voltaire once said, “The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” It may seem like health care that nothing gets accomplished in different health care systems, but ultimately many trying to cures diseases and improve health care systems.