Achieving Healthcare Sustainability: What We’re Doing to Help
Historically, the healthcare industry has certainly had a massive hand in the production of environmental pollutants. However, in the last decade, there has been a push to reverse this trend and implement more sustainable practices industry-wide. At Tracpatch, we care about this issue; which is why we are taking steps to achieve sustainability in our office as well as within the communities we serve.
The Problem
Currently, modern healthcare accounts for approximately 10% of greenhouse gas and air pollutants in the country.1 While the healthcare industry has focused most of its time and resources on patient safety and population health, not as much has been done about environmental sustainability.
Luckily, certain medical device companies, hospitals, and other healthcare organizations have not only caught wind of the environmental impact they are leaving behind but have already begun taking action to create more sustainable products and better practices to reverse the trend. We are looking to lead the charge in these sustainable efforts across the healthcare industry by implementing new strategies in our day-to-day practices in the hope that our colleagues, competitors, and clients will follow in our footsteps and take action to become more environmentally conscious.
What We Are Doing
At TracPatch, we are committed to creating products that enhance the quality of life and conducting business in ways that protect the planet and communities within it. Therefore, we have begun rolling out new, sustainable initiatives to keep our communities cleaner and limit the impact that our products have on the environment.
In the last six months, we have begun shifting our focus to implementing sustainable packaging practices. We understand that packaging significantly affects a product’s sustainability which is why we have switched to packaging that is 100% recyclable. We also recognized that we were over-packaging or placing small items in large boxes. We have made it a priority to eliminate over-packaging as our box is now 9.75 x 5 x 3.75 compared to 8.75 x 11.5 x 3.25 before, ultimately reducing the size of our packaging by 50%. Additionally, while using less material we have increased the number of devices to be shipped in one turn, a small effort that makes a significant impact in the long run.
Not only is utilizing less packaging overall a priority, but we are also working hard to drive a new awareness campaign with our patients and implement a strategy to get every TracPatch device that goes out into the market returned to us so it can be completely recycled at our headquarters. Our overall goal is to continue to implement sustainable practices to lessen our environmental footprint on the world as well as to encourage and educate others to do the same.
An important note is that sustainability is not necessarily an end state, but rather a continuing process of improvement. That is what we are striving to do by redesigning our product packaging, eliminating waste, and implementing an educational sustainability campaign for our patients and healthcare providers.
As we forge ahead, we plan to stick by our pledge to recycle more and reduce the amount of waste we produce overall. For more information about TracPatch and what we are doing to help achieve healthcare sustainability contact us today.
References
- Connolly, E. (2019, February 23). Assessing the Environmental Impact of the Healthcare Industry. Retrieved November 25, 2019, from https://www.medicalbag.com/home/business/assessing-the-environmental-impact-of-the-healthcare-industry/.
