The greening of Saint Anthony Medical Center

Environmental, patient welfare inspire ways to better preserve resources

CROWN POINT Saint Anthony Medical Center is “going green’’ these days in myriad ways.

“We are working more to conserve for the future and to help preserve the environment,” says Cathy Estes, director support services, who oversees food, nutrition, environmental and linen operations.

“Everybody is trying to become greener,” she says of the trend, which has become significant to hospitals nationwide in recent years.

Some methods Saint Anthony employs include:

• Using Green Seal-certified cleaning products, which are packaged in one-use portions that contain a premeasured amount of water to avoid wasting resources. Bottles are reusable and made of 40 percent recycled materials. “The housekeeper is supplied only what is needed for the shift. This limits waste of product, assures the product is mixed properly and limits exposure to the chemicals,” Estes says, adding, “Cardboard and paper used are recycled. Information-sensitive (items) are shredded and recycled.”
• A new dishwasher offers rinse technology that has the ability to cut water and energy costs and use in half compared to the previous machine. Grease used in kitchen fryers is picked up by a local company that recycles it into fuel. Also, the cafeteria recently provided the option of using china drinking mugs to reduce the use of disposable products.

Further recycling ideas are being studied for use in her areas in the near future, Estes says.

“We continue to investigate things we can do.”

Green in more ways than one
Other things are being done in different areas of the hospital, reports Steve Gyure, director of engineering and maintenance.

Gyure says his role is “to ensure that Christian stewardship is followed by improving the allocation of resources in my area through the implementation of projects that are efficient and cost-effective.”

Some ways in which that philosophy is followed include:

• Use of white, reflective roof coatings on black rubber flat roofs. That practice helps increase the reflectivity of solar radiation to help keep interior temperatures lower in summer months. It also protects the life of the roof system by reducing the stress of significant temperature changes and offering a barrier from ultraviolet light to prolong the system’s life.
• Using synthetic-resilient flooring made of chlorine-free polymer, which contains no volatile organic compounds and is highly resistant to bodily fluids, along with being odor -- and mildew --resistant. It’s 30-year life cycle is approximately one-fourth the cost per square foot of vinyl composition tile.
• Using water-based paints throughout the hospital because their odor is less objectionable and cleanup is with soap and water, avoiding use of hazardous or flammable solvents.
• Compact fluorescent lighting helps reduce energy consumption as much as 75 percent.
  Variable frequency drives are used on fans and pumps to ensure only the required amount of air or water is delivered, reducing wasted energy amounts.
• A portion of the air handling units is equipped with economizers that use free cooling.
• The hospital’s high-pressure steam boiler is being replaced by a unit that will reduce natural gas consumption by 3 to 5 percent. Its controls will be equipped with a system that will optimize the air/fuel ratio used for combustion.Future efforts will continue to help reduce the hospital’s waste stream and implement energy conservation measures, Gyure says.

“The emphasis is on life-cycle cost rather than first cost,” he adds.

Paperless adds to greenness
Deb Halton, director of health information management and the medical staff office, estimates her departments save about $35,000 annually through “green initiative’’ methods.

Some of those measures, she says, “have saved lots of money and lots of trees” since implementation began in 2004-05.

Those include:

• Document Imaging, begun in 2006, which consists of scanning medical records at patient discharge, which has reduced paper consumption. “Many of the people who in the past would request copies of patients’ medical records now can view them online. We are also able to transmit our dictated transcribed reports director to our electronic medical record via an interface, rather than printing the paper.” Changes in physician and nursing documentation likewise have advanced the paperless record. “Our physicians are also able to online recording of progress notes, which someday may be transmitted, but we aren’t quite there yet.’’
• The elimination of chart folders.
• Document imaging systems on the corporate level to allow scanning and online viewing of physician files needed for credentialing.
• Implementation of the Indiana Health Information Exchange Doc for Doc Messaging System. Patient results that were printed on paper and filed in doctors’ mailboxes now are delivered electronically to offices, via fax or e-mail, resulting in better patient care through improved timeliness and efficient result reporting.

Halton, as director, co-chaired the hospital Electronic Medical Records Implementation Team.

“Lori Debs, health information management assistant director, was a primary lead for implementation of the electronic record. She was chiefly responsible for hospital form redesign, so that the forms would be image-friendly,” Halton says.

Future efforts include studying more ways to save on resources and supplies, including redesigning of forms, eliminating copies and getting more doctors involved in systems applications.

“We implemented a physician IT committee here last year through our Clinical Informatics Department, which also has made some positive changes,” Halton says.

Technology helps the cause
Jackie Katz, director of imaging, says technology changes, which began about five years ago, are helping to reduce the amount of paper and x-ray film the hospital uses.

Another change is the move away from use of cassettes in x-ray imaging equipment.

“The side benefit is that the exams are faster because we aren’t handling cassettes. As the cost goes down, we’d like to add more of these units in the future,” Katz says.

Other improvements have been the implementation of full, digital mammography services – the first hospital in the area to offer them. Saint Anthony also was the first locally to install an all-digital cardiovascular imaging system used to conduct a successful biventricular pacemaker procedure.

Katz says she regards greening efforts in her areas as successful, thanks to technology advances.
“The greening of radiology is an inherent part of the technology change,” she adds.