Code green: Building sustainable and patient-friendly hospitals

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This latest blog article on Terry Lambert takes an in-depth look at the movement toward safer, greener, and more patient-friendly hospitals which has been gaining ground amid the impending fiscal scare.


Healthcare construction kicks into high gear amid the fiscal cliff with a combination of environmentally friendly products, services, and practices. For instance, the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has joined the green architecture bandwagon with its waste management program that includes sending 1.5 tons of food to the compost pile every week, eliminating the delivery of tons of medical journals sent to doctors who are no longer affiliated with BIDMC, and switching to reusable and washable containers. Reportedly, the hospital has been able to save $308,ooo during the first half of 2012.

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Green architecture isn’t all about fancy and aesthetic additions. For the healthcare sector, expanding the definition of design is hinged on the need to address the crises being faced by providers which include medical errors. These crises are better solved systematically -- by looking at failures holistically, rather than focusing on a specific problematic area.


A critical part of leadership is forging a collective responsibility. Through green architecture, the hospitals would be able to implement a mandate that would have the whole organization accountable for its actions. Actions like proper waste disposal, use of environment-friendly utensils, and lowering noise levels could go a long way in a hospital’s green and sustainable efforts.

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Strengthening physician-hospital management communication

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It has been said that every hospital needs physicians but not all physicians need to serve at the hospitals. If that were the case, then the healthcare sector is in for another hard grind.


With the current state of the economy, it’s so easy to tell that medical care has enough on its plate. Sadly, the front needs more prodding in the issue of physician-administrator relationships which have long been wobbled by the market forces at play.

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From structural integration to ideological integration, many efforts have been done to address the unsteady relationship of physicians and hospitals. But the overarching issue remains, baffling policymakers and healthcare practitioners alike. To elucidate on that matter, the American College of Physician Executives (ACPE) advises the healthcare sector to start focusing on the physician groups which comprise the whole of organization. ACPE parses that in order to unite the organization’s incompatible groups, they must be strengthened separately.


The strength of ACPE’s recommendation lies on the sociological notion that people are able to understand themselves better based on the similarities they share with the groups to which they are affiliated with and the differences they see from the groups from which they don’t belong. As a result, the negative reactions of turfism and tribalism are likely avoided.

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When the separate groups begin to manifest cohesiveness and unity, then it’s time for leaders to begin shifting the perception of ‘them’ to ‘us’ – an organization with a uniting set of values and beliefs.


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