Greening Cardiology: Exploring the Sustainability Practices of Healthcare Workers in the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory

摘要

Background: Hospitals produce a substantial amounts of waste. To understand the potential role of employeesin reducing waste, we surveyed healthcare workers in the cardiac catheterization laboratory-a resource-intensivehospital area – about their personal practices regarding sustainability at work and at home.Methods and results: We surveyed 52 full-time employees of the University of Michigan Cardiac CatheterizationLaboratories using an anonymous online survey. Employees included all individuals working in a patient carecapacity, such as physicians, nurses, technicians, medical assistants and administrators. Paired t-tests comparedresponses to parallel questions about recycling and energy saving habits between work and home. A total of 42 of52 (80.8%) respondents completed the survey with 12 (28.6%) physicians and 30 (71.4%) non-physicians. Recyclingand energy saving habits were more evident on average at home than in the workplace across the majority of areasexamined. Comparing sustainability habits between subpopulations, physicians were found to engage in energysaving habits at home significantly less often than non-physician employees (mean score, 2.3 versus 2.9; p=0.0014)and employees under 40 years of age engaged in energy saving habits significantly less at work than employeesover 40 years of age (mean score, 1.7 versus 2.1; p=0.0322).