Hospitals and health systems generate a huge amount of waste each year and the opportunity for cost reduction through smart resource and waste management may be as high as 40 percent to 70 percent, according to an article on the Healthcare Finance News website.
That represents $4 billion to $7 billion, according to the Sustainability Roadmap for Hospitals, a joint research effort by the American Society for Healthcare Engineering, the Association for the Healthcare Environment and the Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management of the American Hospital Association.
Facilities should look for environmentally sustainable waste processing companies that want to be partners rather than just vendors, according to Janet Howard, director of content and outreach of the Healthier Hospitals Initiative.
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