by Brianna Crandall — October 17, 2016 — Practice Greenhealth, the nationwide nonprofit membership and networking organization for sustainable health care, recently revealed its Greenhealth Cost of Ownership (GCO) Calculator, designed to help hospitals identify environmentally preferable products that can reduce costs while minimizing environmental and health impacts.
The GCO Calculator is said to be a first-of-its-kind for the health-care sector that allows hospitals and health systems to analyze the hidden costs of products and devices beyond the initial price tag, such as maintenance, water, energy and disposal costs. Since the initial cost of green products is sometimes higher compared to their counterparts, determining the total cost of ownership can lead to strategic purchasing decisions that are good for the environment, good for patients and staff, and good for the bottom line, notes the group.
Additionally, the GCO Calculator can be invaluable to manufacturers and suppliers of health-care products and devices to identify strengths and weaknesses of their products through a common framework.
According to Practice Greenhealth, hospitals have the second-largest energy footprint of all sectors, are huge water users, and generate 5.9 million tons of waste annually. These impacts are both costly to hospitals and harmful to the planet and community health, points out the group. The tool is expected to help drive a shift in how purchasing decisions are made by providing powerful data that allows hospitals to assess whether investing more upfront in green products can reduce costs in the long run. Gaining more visibility over these costs — beyond the initial price tag — is said to be the first step.
Practice Greenhealth kicked off the development of the GCO Calculator in January 2014 with the support of major organizations committed to the project. Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Dignity Health System and Kaiser Permanente participated in the pilot of the GCO Calculator before its official rollout. The GCO Calculator is available to download online, and stores all data generated by the user.
As hospitals and health systems address economic and environmental challenges head on, many have zeroed in on purchasing as an opportunity to reduce costs and improve public health, notes the organization. Hospitals reportedly spend 25 percent of their budgets on supplies for their operations, while millions more are spent using, maintaining and disposing of these supplies.
Organizations can learn more, download the tool, and register for Webinars on the Greenhealth Cost of Ownership Calculator Web page.
