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Practice Greenhealth, HCWH, and the Healthier Hospitals Initiative describe strategies and resources for bringing sustainable practices to the health care sector.&n  enlarge video

Health Care Research Collaborative

About the Research Collaborative

The Health Care Research Collaborative was developed to meet a need expressed by hospital and health system executives for more research and data to assist them in their efforts to make more sustainable choices in health care design, construction, operations and organization. To fund this initiative, HCHW applied for and received seed funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Health Care Research Collaborative is based at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, with a mission to stimulate the development, coordination and dissemination of research focused on the impact of the health care built environment, operations and organization on patient, worker and environmental safety and sustainability. This interdisciplinary approach reflects the growing understanding among the leadership of health care providers that patient, provider, and community health and safety are profoundly interrelated.

In discussions with representatives of health systems, academic institutions and government agencies, several overarching principles were highlighted as priority criteria in developing research projects, and these continue to steer our agenda:

  1. Incorporation of patient, worker, and environmental safety
  2. Production of evidence to provide a decision-making base for operations and construction of facilities
  3. Evaluation of the costs and benefits of proposed changes in new policies and practices, including initial capital investment, institutional life-cycle costs, and community impacts.

The Research Collaborative has published a series of white papers that explore existing research and identify research gaps in a number of areas of health care safety and sustainability (downloadable below). We also develop original research projects. The Collaborative works closely with the Healthier Hospitals Initiative, a group of hospitals that are leading the way on sustainability, and with Practice Greenhealth, a membership and networking organization for hospitals engaged in sustainable health care.

We welcome inquiries:

Peter Orris, MD, MPH, Chair
Area code 312, 413-0369

Susan Kaplan, JD, Research Director
Area code 312, 355-0738

List of Research Collaborative Reports

CleanMed 2012 Presentations

These are presentations from the Second Annual Research Exchange on May 3, 2012 at the 2012 CleanMed Conference held in Denver, Colorado, as well as the agenda from the 2012 CleanMed Research Collaborative Meeting.

CleanMed 2011 Presentations

These are presentations from the April 6 Research Exchange at the 2011 CleanMed Conference held in Phoenix, Arizona, as well as the agenda from the 2011 CleanMed Research Collaborative Meeting.

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Webinar: How Sustainable Hospitals Are Achieving Major Savings

Health Care Without Harm and The Commonwealth Fund present a webinar based on the recent groundbreaking findings on how hospitals can achieve savings and reduce their carbon footprint through sustainability programs. This one-hour webinar draws on the findings of a recent Health Care Without Harm Research Collaborative/ Commonwealth Fund study, "Can Sustainable Hospitals Help Bend the Health Care Cost Curve?" which shows that savings from interventions to reduce energy use and waste, and achieve operating room supply efficiencies could exceed $5.4 billion over five years and $15 billion over 10 years for the health care sector. In addition to detailing the study findings, the webinar includes presentations from two health systems about why they chose to focus on sustainability and what challenges and rewards are in store.

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