IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v20y2023i5p3978-d1078068.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Consensus on Prioritisation of Actions for Reducing the Environmental Impact of a Large Tertiary Hospital: Application of the Nominal Group Technique

Author

Listed:
  • Jessica F. Davies

    (Anaesthetics Department, Austin Health, Heidelberg, VIC 3084, Australia
    Department of Critical Care, School of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia)

  • Forbes McGain

    (Department of Critical Care, School of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
    Anaesthetic and Intensive Care Departments, Western Health, St Albans, VIC 3021, Australia
    School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW 2006, Australia)

  • Jillian J. Francis

    (School of Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia
    Department of Health Services Research, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, 305 Grattan St., Melbourne, VIC 3000, Australia
    Centre for Implementation Research, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, General Campus, 501 Smyth Road, Ottawa, ON K1H 8L6, Canada)

Abstract

Hospitals are the largest greenhouse gas producers within the Australian healthcare sector due to the large amounts of energy, resource utilization, equipment and pharmaceuticals required to deliver care. In order to reduce healthcare emissions, healthcare services must take multiple actions to address the broad range of emissions produced when delivering patient care. The goal of this study was to seek consensus on the priority actions needed to reduce the environmental impact of a tertiary Australian hospital. A nominal group technique was utilized within a multidisciplinary, executive-led environmental sustainability committee to find consensus on the 62 proposed actions to reduce the environmental impact of a tertiary Australian hospital. Thirteen participants joined an online workshop during which an educational presentation was delivered, 62 potential actions were privately ranked according to two domains of ‘amenability to change’ and ‘scale of climate impact’ and a moderated group discussion ensued. The group achieved verbal consensus on 16 actions that span staff education, procurement, pharmaceuticals, waste, transport and advocacy on all-electric capital works upgrades. In addition, the individual ratings of potential actions according to each domain were ranked and shared with the group. Despite a large number of actions and varied perspectives within the group, the nominal group technique can be used to focus a hospital leadership group on priority actions to improve environmental sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Jessica F. Davies & Forbes McGain & Jillian J. Francis, 2023. "Consensus on Prioritisation of Actions for Reducing the Environmental Impact of a Large Tertiary Hospital: Application of the Nominal Group Technique," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-15, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:5:p:3978-:d:1078068
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/5/3978/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/5/3978/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matthew J Eckelman & Jodi D Sherman & Andrea J MacNeill, 2018. "Life cycle environmental emissions and health damages from the Canadian healthcare system: An economic-environmental-epidemiological analysis," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(7), pages 1-16, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hensher, Martin & Canny, Ben & Zimitat, Craig & Campbell, Julie & Palmer, Andrew, 2020. "Health care, overconsumption and uneconomic growth: A conceptual framework," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 266(C).
    2. Catherine Lalman & Hirushie Karunathilake & Rajeev Ruparathna, 2023. "To Dispose or to Reuse? Analyzing the Life Cycle Impacts and Costs of Disposal, Sterilization, and Reuse of Electrophysiological Catheters," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-23, March.
    3. David Duindam, 2022. "Transitioning to Sustainable Healthcare: Decarbonising Healthcare Clinics, a Literature Review," Challenges, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-20, December.
    4. Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír & Fan, Yee Van & Jiang, Peng, 2020. "The energy and environmental footprints of COVID-19 fighting measures – PPE, disinfection, supply chains," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    5. Robert H. Sarikas & Elizabeth Tipton & Andy Fodor & Arsen M. Djatej, 2023. "Sustainability Methodologies and Sustainability-linked Senior Management Compensation Policies: An Analysis of Relationships for Global Companies in the Healthcare and Educational Services Sectors," Environmental Management and Sustainable Development, Macrothink Institute, vol. 12(1), pages 82-109, December.
    6. Chro Hama Radha, 2023. "Retrofitting for Improving Indoor Air Quality and Energy Efficiency in the Hospital Building," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-20, February.
    7. Martin Hensher, 2023. "Climate change, health and sustainable healthcare: The role of health economics," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(5), pages 985-992, May.
    8. Masoumeh Vali & Khodakaram Salimifard & Amir H. Gandomi & Thierry J. Chaussalet, 2022. "Care process optimization in a cardiovascular hospital: an integration of simulation–optimization and data mining," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 318(1), pages 685-712, November.
    9. Florence Degavre & Suzanne Kieffer & David Bol & Rémi Dekimpe & Charlotte Desterbecq & Thibault Pirson & Georgiana Sandu & Sandy Tubeuf, 2022. "Searching for Sustainability in Health Systems: Toward a Multidisciplinary Evaluation of Mobile Health Innovations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-17, April.
    10. Alexander Cimprich & Steven B. Young, 2023. "Environmental footprinting of hospitals: Organizational life cycle assessment of a Canadian hospital," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 27(5), pages 1335-1353, October.
    11. Barbara Greenwood Dufour & Laura Weeks & Gino De Angelis & Dave K. Marchand & David Kaunelis & Melissa Severn & Melissa Walter & Nicole Mittmann, 2022. "How We Might Further Integrate Considerations of Environmental Impact When Assessing the Value of Health Technologies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-8, September.
    12. Kalogirou, Maya R. & Dahlke, Sherry & Davidson, Sandra & Yamamoto, Shelby, 2021. "Integrating planetary health into healthcare: A document analysis," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(6), pages 799-806.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:5:p:3978-:d:1078068. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.