Compliance Assistance & Pollution Prevention in New England
Healthcare: Other Helpful Information
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Health Care Without Harm
Working to make the health care industry ecologically sustainable
Practice Greenhealth
Hospitals for a Healthy Environment, the Green Guide for Health Care, and the Healthcare Clean Energy Exchange have combined to form Practice Greenhealth, a nonprofit membership organization founded on the principles of positive environmental stewardship and best practices by organizations in the healthcare community.
Healthier Hospitals Initiative (HHI)
The Healthier Hospitals Initiative (HHI) is a national campaign to implement a completely new approach to improving environmental health and sustainability in the health care sector. Eleven of the largest, most influential U.S. health systems, comprising over 475 hospitals with more than $20 billion in purchasing power, worked with Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), the Center for Health Design and Practice Greenhealth to create HHI as a guide for hospitals to reduce energy and waste, choose safer and less toxic products, and purchase and serve healthier foods.
- HHI 2012 Milestone Report (PDF) (28 pp, 2.2 MB)
- HHI 2013 Milestone Report (PDF) (16 pp, 3.6 MB)
- HHI 2014 Milestone Report (PDF) (28 pp, 1.3 MB)
- Advancing Sustainability in Health Care: A Collection of Special Case Studies, 5/11/15 (PDF) (56 pp, 10 MB)
This compilation of case studies features HHI enrolled hospitals that experienced success through their work with the Healthier Hospitals Initiative. The team made an effort to identify successes from across the United States, in varying sizes and locations, to let readers hear loud and clear that any hospital can benefit from HHI’s proven environmental interventions.
Sustainability Roadmap for Hospitals
OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration)
- Safety and Health Topics: Healthcare Facilities
A range of information and links for healthcare - Hospital eTool
Offers a graphic menu to identify hazards and controls found in the hospital and healthcare industry. - Compliance Assistance Quick Start: Health Care Industry
Directed primarily to small employers in the healthcare field, this module is designed to help users find free healthcare-related resources on the OSHA Web site. The eight-step module includes information on OSHA requirements that apply to many healthcare employers, including: developing a comprehensive safety and health program, training employees, and record keeping, reporting and posting requirements. Compliance Assistance Quick Start provides step-by-step guidance on how to identify OSHA requirements and guidance materials that may apply to specific workplaces. - Worker Safety in Hospitals
OSHA created a suite of resources to help hospitals assess workplace safety needs, implement safety and health management systems, and enhance their safe patient handling programs. Preventing worker injuries not only helps workers—it also helps patients and will save resources for hospitals.
MASCO - Medical Academic and Scientific Community: Mercury Workgroup page
Guidebooks, manuals and mercury product database focused primarily
on mercury in wastewater.
EPA: RCRA Online
RCRA documents by subject heading, by keyword search, or by full
text search
Evaluating Environmental Cleaning Toolkit, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The CDC recognizes the evidence that transmission of many healthcare-acquired pathogens is related to contamination of near-patient surfaces and equipment. All hospitals are encouraged to develop programs to optimize the thoroughness of high-touch surface cleaning as part of terminal room cleaning at the time of discharge or transfer of patients.
Healthy Air:
A Community and Business Leaders Guide
A collection of non-regulatory, time and cost-saving ideas communities can use
to reduce toxic air pollution. This guide has both a hospital
communities page (PDF) (2 pp, 251 K, About
PDF) and a hospital
owner/operator information page (PDF) (3 pp, 254 K, About PDF).
EnviRN - The Knowledge Network
A site for nurses interested in environmental health.
Green Doctor Office Program
Developed by Florida physicians and experts in the "built environment" and administered by the volunteer physicians of the Environment & Health Section of the Florida Medical Association and the FMA Foundation, a charitable 501(c) 3 corporation.
Click on the Overview tab on the left to begin learning about the environmental impact of doctor offices, and the many benefits to your practice and to your community that can be obtained from using this free Program. Click on "Quick Start Now!" to get started.
Public Health Information
EPA's Aging Initiative
Efforts to protect the environmental health of older persons.
EPA's Children's Environmental Health: Online Resources for Health Care Providers
The list was developed as an informal starting point for health care providers (HCP) to learn more about pediatric environmental health.
Introduction
to Mold and Mold Remediation for Environmental and Public Health
Professionals
This web course contains information on mold prevention and remediation.
It is designed primarily for environmental and public health professionals.
The Mold Course has nine chapters, each divided into smaller lessons.
At the end of each chapter, take the voluntary quiz to test your
understanding of the material. Each chapter may be accessed at any
point in the course using the menu on the left side of the page.
Ozone and Your Patient's
Health On-line Training Course
A short, evidence-based training for family practice doctors, pediatricians
and other primary care providers.
What
you need to know about Mercury in Fish and Shellfish
Brochure with advice for women who might become pregnant, women
who are pregnant, nursing mothers and young children.
Child-Specific Exposure Factors Handbook, September 2008, National Center for Environmental Assessment
This handbook provides information on various physiological and behavioral factors commonly used in assessing children's exposure to environmental chemicals.
Recognizing Waterborne Disease and the Health Effects of Water Pollution: A Physician On-Line Reference Guide, American College of Preventive Medicine
This on-line medical reference guide addresses waterborne disease, water terrorism, and medical preparedness.
EPA's Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products (PPCP)
This site is dedicated to the scientific issues associated with the occurrence of PPCPs in the environment, including basic information about PPCPs and the environmental concerns. Frequent Questions - frequent questions about PPCPs; EPA PPCP Research Areas - brief descriptions of EPA PPCP research projects.
Pediatric Environmental Health Toolkit
A combination of easy-to-use reference guides for health providers and user friendly health education materials on preventing exposures to toxic chemicals and other substances that affect infant and child health.