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Greening your hospital without sacrificing IC

Briefings on Infection Control, May 1, 2009

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It’s not uncommon for IPs to raise a caution flag when they hear the words “going green” or “green cleaning.” This is a reasonable reaction, because IPs are concerned with preventing infections at all costs. Sometimes, IPs associate going green with sacrificing IC measures.

But building a more environmentally friendly hospital doesn’t have to come at the cost of patient safety or IC.

“Infection control is of paramount importance to patient safety, so everything we do really needs to be put through a filter of going green without compromising patient safety or care,” says Cecilia DeLoach Lynn, MBA, HEM, senior manager of sustainable operations at Practice Greenhealth in Arlington, VA. “We work with infection control practitioners so their needs are met and then to add that additional filter of green on the process, but it needs to be an additional filter, not in place of [infection control].”

As hospitals throughout the country begin taking strides to become greener, it is becoming clearer that green doesn’t mean less clean. In fact, there are several ways your facility can implement procedures that improve your environmental footprint as well as efficiency and cost savings.

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login.

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