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"Green" Practices Boosted by Financial Hardships and Community Pressure

Hospitals dispose a greater and more complicated variety of waste than a nuclear power plant. And they consume more energy than most factories.

Now more than ever, for several compounding reasons, hospitals are taking on so-called "green" conservation initiatives geared at saving money and doing what's best for the environment.

Why now? It's a perfect storm of higher energy costs, low reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid, increased uninsured and underinsured patients, along with a cultural shift to combat global warming.

"Everybody is really bombarded by green information," said Don Paschal, corporate director of engineering for Orlando Health, which started what the hospital system calls a Green Team in April. "It's all over our TVs and newspapers. As a facility person looking at our corporation, we need to be smart with the way we use our resources. We also understand that it's good business practice to save energy and also save dollars."

Orlando Health already owns a small fleet of electric cars. Paschal commissioned an energy consumption audit and looks to replace outdated motors that run things such as air conditioning and water pumps with newer, variable speed motors. In all, he hopes to save roughly 10 percent in about three years on the millions of dollars the hospital system spends on utility bills.

Another major way hospitals can save money and conserve resources is through waste management. Chemotherapy waste is the most expensive, said Marc Ouellette, Orlando Health's corporate director for environmental services. His department is currently working on a number of initiatives such as recycling and reclaiming xylene, a chemical used to treat tissue in the laboratory.

"The City of Orlando and counties are pushing it," Ouellette said. "We really started it with designing the new cardiovascular center, looking at storm water, heat efficiencies, better use of potable water and landscaping efficiency. Last year saw more of it."

There are so many ways hospitals can save money with the way they dispose or recycle waste, said Tony Schifano, president and founder of Antos Environmental Corp. The firm not only tells hospitals how to improve their waste disposal and recycling programs — they do it for them. Schifano's contracts with hospitals typically last between three to five years, and the company gets paid half of what they help the hospital save for the duration of the contract.

Over three years, Antos reduced the waste costs at Naples Community Hospital south of Tampa from roughly $437,000 to $208,000.

"We've been doing green before it became a popular, in-vogue thing," said Schifano, who started his company 20 years ago after working as a hospital manager in New York.

In Florida, especially, where most of the state prohibits underground landfills because of shallow ground water tables, waste management — which Schifano calls an oxymoron — is particularly important.

"Florida is building mountains of garbage," Schifano said. "It's the most ludicrous thing."

In the next few years, Schifano said he hopes to serve half of all Florida hospitals. He recently inked a deal with Tallahassee Memorial Health (TMH).

"We want to be a leader and show the community that in a very tough environment, a hospital can make a dramatic difference," said Warren Jones, chief communications officer at TMH.

The hospital has first started to make sure items in red hazardous waste bags truly belong there — a small step, like so much related to conservation, on the road to big dividends, said Jones.

The hospital's initiative comes in lock step with efforts by the local business community. Tallahassee Memorial Health CEO Mark O'Bryant serves on the board of the non-profit Sustainable Tallahassee, which plans to create a Greener Business Bureau as a way to support similar initiatives by other businesses.

Big dividends are to be had at just about any hospital. In Tampa Bay, Schifano said Antos may be close to inking a deal with Tampa General Hospital, but hospital officials could not be reached to verify.

In 2007, Tampa General spent $885,000 on waste disposal, nearly $5.7 million on electricity and $1.4 million on natural gas, said spokeswoman Ellen Fiss.

Tampa General, too, created a committee earlier this year to address better waste management and conservation, said Paul Harvey, director of hospitality services.

"People who were committed in their own personal lives and their own units where they work wanted to do things that positively impact the environment in our institution and the world at large," Harvey said.

As the director of food services, Harvey has his sights set toward on-site composting and recycling used cooking oil with companies that convert it into bio-diesel.

"Another big thing is eliminating waste before it ends up in the hospital," Harvey said. "We can work with vendors not to have so much packaging."

All across Florida, the culture is changing. "Awareness by everyone is different now," said Paschal at Orlando Health. "People are realizing that it's important."

In the past, Paschal didn't have all the financial resources at his disposal to be creative. Now, he says, hospital management gives him much more leeway to spend money in order to save costs and the environment in the near future.

"It's really a mindset," said Paschal.

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