Green Purchasing Trends in Imaging

Recycling, education, and more

Hospital chief executive officers want to be good stewards of the environment, but they also want to survive in the marketplace.

Looking at medical economics, leaders grapple with sustaining older facilities and radiology equipment versus building and buying new in a scary world of less available capital. Executives also know that being perceived as an environmentally friendly healthcare provider builds the reputation of their hospitals. It is a tight spot.

Going green can be confusing and costly for hospital executives and radiology and imaging departments. The good news is the right balance of being economical and eco-friendly can be achieved. Recent trends indicate that imaging directors can develop initiatives to go green and stretch the programs they already have.

Trend 1: More Recycling
Suppliers are offering more programs for the take-back and recycling of used products. For hospitals to pay attention to what they are throwing away is one of the top ways to save money and be frugal with the environment. Malvern, Pa.-based Siemens Medical Solutions USA, for example, offers take-back of its used systems for recycling and proper treatment. No substances that are banned for use are included.

The take-back program is part of Siemens’ product sustainability program, entitled product-related environmental protection (PREP). The PREP process is used to improve environmental performance of its products across all product life cycle phases. The PREP process includes:

• inventorying the environmental aspects of products and packaging
• selecting environmental improvement targets for significant product revisions and new products across all product life cycle phases
• refurbishing of used systems
• offering take-back of used systems
• providing product environmental data.

The company also looks to reduce the content of hazardous substances and energy consumption required to use its products.

Trend 2: Water-Based Products
Some suppliers, such as Fujifilm Medical Systems in Stamford, Conn., offer water-based application of film and coating, as opposed to caustic materials such as lacquer. Fewer solvents used in film make it more earth-friendly. Fuji is improving its management of chemical substances and the chemical content of products to reduce environmental risks. GE Healthcare in Waukesha, Wis., also offers a variety of solutions that range from energy to water consumption-reducing technologies.

About 80 percent of members of Irving, Texas-based VHA (a network of not-for-profit healthcare organizations); University HealthSystem Consortium, an alliance of academic medical centers and their affiliated hospitals, based in Oak Brook, Ill.; and Provista, a supply chain improvement company in Irving, Texas, are pushing in the area of going from film to PACS that use no water and caustic chemicals. 

Trend 3: Energy-Saving Products 
Suppliers are creating energy-saving products with fewer hazardous chemicals.
For example, Siemens’ SOMATOM Definition CT scanner has energy savings of up to 30 percent and lead reduction of 83 percent over other products.

During the last two years, the engineers at Roselle, Ill.-based Del Medical Systems Group have developed an X-ray generator family called Anthem to substitute the less-efficient older version of Anatomical Programming (APX) and Automatic Technique Control (ATC). The new Anthem X-ray generators have higher power and are more efficient. Higher power helps to reduce exposure time, which is better for patients. The new APX uses 35 percent less current than older models; the new ATC generator uses 18 percent less current.

Trend 4: Electronic Storage
The continued creation of DR rooms reduces medical costs. Hospitals don’t have to use as much medical film or use offsite storage services because it’s all electronic storage. CR also is all electronic storage, and very few images are made on an as-needed basis only. Hospitals don’t have to print the film, which eliminates the need to purchase envelopes to store them and the expense of couriers to transport the film to PACS. Transportation is done electronically.

Suppliers of DR include: GE Healthcare, Rochester, N.Y.-based Carestream Health, and Fuji Medical, which also are suppliers for CR, along with Agfa Healthcare in Belgium. PACS suppliers include Agfa, Fuji, Emageon, GE Healthcare, Carestream, Dynamic Imaging, and DR Systems in San Diego.

Trend 5: Green Education 
As more green products and services become available to radiology and imaging departments, managers have a growing need to learn what is new in the marketplace.

To make it easier for hospitals, Novation began capturing green information that is public for its member hospitals and organizing it into an Environmentally Preferred Purchasing (EPP) product online catalog. With nearly 300 products and growing, the catalog aims to assist members in achieving green purchasing objectives in specific functional areas. It is organized by traditional healthcare organization service areas such as anesthesia, facilities, food and furniture, imaging, medical, and surgical. Products and services are highlighted within the catalog with descriptions of their environmental benefit and product images. The catalog allows materials managers to look at a variety of issues when considering their purchasing options.

Novation requires suppliers to make environmental impact and benefit statements for the products they manufacture. The Environmental Benefit section offers buyers extended information about why the product is an EPP product. For example, descriptions range from: “recycled bottle,”  “bag-in-box uses less material and carton is recyclable,” “super concentrated,” “lower odor,” or “reusable.” When new information is available, Novation sends alerts to members.

For Novation, the catalog provides a unique opportunity to make a difference and assist in the environmental purchasing practices of its members.

Novation also launched its first interactive flash tool dedicated to helping member hospitals implement EPP practices. The Growing Green tool features a graphical user interface (GUI) in the form of a growing tree with branches representing a staged approach by department and topic area. Members begin the going green process by selecting easy projects or low-hanging fruit from the tree and then work upwards into other areas of the hospital to implement more robust EPP practices. The tool also provides information and resources to assist hospitals just beginning to implement their green programs, including templates to assist in assembling internal cross-functional teams and outlines of activities and flowcharts to assist in garnering internal support.

The tool provides a full range of green-related resources, including topics such as Creating Your Green Team, Quick Wins, Long Term Planning, Managing Waste, and a host of other topics to assist members in implementing lasting EPP practices. The tool is an expansion of the current Novation EPP Web portal and catalogs.

Moving Forward

Greening in healthcare continues to be important. Transitioning to new products and technology may be at a slower pace because of the economy, but radiology and imaging departments can build on what they have. If the hospital is building a new facility, now is the best time to use these trends as a checklist for making changes. Working with group purchasing organizations, such as Novation, can help find the best products at the best prices.

–| Edward G. Schrader Jr. is the senior director of imaging contract and program services at Novation (www.novationco.com), an Irving, Texas-based healthcare contracting services company for members of VHA Inc., University HealthSystem Consortium, and Provista LLC. Direct all questions and comments to editorial@rt-image.com.