586 posters, 8 topics, 23 sessions, 1,077 authors, 622 institutions

ISQua's 40th International Conference 2024

24th - 27th September 2024 | Istanbul, Türkiye

P679

Assessing, measuring and tracking sustainability in healthcare: the potential of the Sustainability Accelerator Tool

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Poster Presenter

Sylvia BASTERRECHEA

Authors

Sylvia Basterrechea, Carmen Menéndez

Affiliations

International Hospital Federation, IHF Geneva Sustainability Centre

Part of Topic

Navigating Climate Change and Sustainability in Healthcare System

Title: Assessing and tracking sustainability inhealthcare: the potential of the Sustainability Accelerator Tool (SAT)

Preliminary results

Hospitals and health systems across the globe are already making progress towards sustainability, particularly on aspects related to health equity and wellbeing, and to leadership and governance. Most of them have started to:

define a strategy, implement actions, and set targets to reduce their environmental impact;
incorporate low-carbon approaches to their practices and operations;
include sustainability issues in senior management discussions, report progress, and engage employees and stakeholders in their sustainability journey.

ABOUT the METHODOLOGY

In 2023, the SAT was piloted by 13 hospitals and hospital groups in 10 countries. While the pilot sample size was relatively small and predominantly comprised hospitals already engaged in sustainability efforts, the diversity of the sample unveiled the potential of using a common framework to assess hospitals' progress towards achieving sustainable healthcare practices

KEY FINDINGS

Despite procurement’s impact on carbon emissions, only a few hospitals have defined environmental criteria for procurement processes or collaborated with suppliers to assess the impacts across the life cycle of products or set climate targets.
Rethinking and transforming clinical practices and operational services can also reduce the environmental impact of hospitals’ supply chain.
Hospitals need support to integrate low-carbon approaches and to improve their understanding of the environment’s influence on health, the effects of climate change, and how to incorporate it into service models.
Hospitals need to change how they address community health issues, focusing more on how climate change affects health conditions and certain populations.
An important opportunity for the sector is to assess climate change-related vulnerabilities and incorporate them in healthcare delivery in an equitable way.
Transitioning to sustainable healthcare requires reinforcing the involvement of stakeholders, engaging the workforce and empower them to act. This is key to reduce the environmental impact and to improve community health outcomes.
The adoption of common frameworks and metrics specifically made for the healthcare sector contributes to support sustainability tracking and reporting processes

CONCLUSION

The preliminary results of the SAT pilot program demonstrated the relevance of the assessment framework in assessing sustainability in the healthcare sector. It uniquely integrates the sector’s specificities, recognizes hospitals as anchor institutions and key agents in improving health outcomes in their communities, and highlights the crucial role of hospital leaders and governance structures in driving the transformation towards sustainable, low-carbon, and resilient healthcare.

This pilot program offers a glimpse into the vast potential of a widespread adoption of the SAT assessment framework. With a common framework in place, hospitals and stakeholders are empowered to strategize better, identify research gaps, target support effectively, and foster collaboration.