How HCA Healthcare and Affiliated Hospitals Help Our Environment

April 22 marks the 47th anniversary of Earth Day.  Earth Day is an opportunity to celebrate, educate and demonstrate how HCA Healthcare and our affiliated hospitals help our planet.  For Earth Day 2017, we’re sharing interesting facts about how we have worked to become more environmentally friendly for our employees, patients and communities.

Did You Know…?

• HCA Healthcare has a comprehensive environmental sustainability program to promote energy and water conservation, green buildings, and increase recycling and environmentally conscious purchasing.
• We have a Sustainability Steering Committee that provides overall guidance for HCA Healthcare’s Sustainability Program. Four task forces – Energy and Water, Construction and Major Renovation, Environmentally Preferable Purchasing and Waste Stream – work on environmental issues with company-wide application.
• HCA Healthcare has sought to improve sustainability within the healthcare sector: founding sponsor of the Greening the Operating Room Initiative; founder of the Healthier Hospitals Initiative; member of Practice Greenhealth; and member of HealthTrust’s Environmental Sustainability Network.

Energy and Water

• In 2016, energy reductions of about 64.5 million kilowatt-hours from 2015 were achieved.
• Water-saving measures, where implemented, annually save over 3,300 gallons of water per patient room.

Waste Stream

• We use environmentally-sound methods to dispose of hazardous, infectious, and pharmaceutical wastes.
• 52.3 million pounds of cardboard, paper, aluminum, wood and rechargeable batteries were recycled from HCA Healthcare hospitals in 2016.

Environmentally Preferable Purchasing

• Hospitals and surgery centers diverted 1.3 million pounds of medical devices from landfill in 2016 for reprocessing under Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules.
• Through available purchasing options, all facilities have significantly reduced mercury-containing devices, and have access to green-certified chemicals. 

Construction and Major Renovation

• We have instituted a recycling program for new construction projects.
• We have 11 construction projects that either have received or are in pursuit of status under Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). For construction projects where LEED certification is not pursued, frequently the LEED scorecard is used as a guide.

Everyone can play a part in protecting our environment. We hope you enjoyed learning a little about sustainability efforts at HCA Healthcare and our affiliated facilities.