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

Abstract

Azba Gurm, Jessica Lehrich* and Brahmajee K Nallamothu

Background: Hospitals produce a substantial amounts of waste. To understand the potential role of employees in reducing waste, we surveyed healthcare workers in the cardiac catheterization laboratory-a resource-intensive hospital 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 Catheterization Laboratories using an anonymous online survey. Employees included all individuals working in a patient care capacity, such as physicians, nurses, technicians, medical assistants and administrators. Paired t-tests compared responses to parallel questions about recycling and energy saving habits between work and home. A total of 42 of 52 (80.8%) respondents completed the survey with 12 (28.6%) physicians and 30 (71.4%) non-physicians. Recycling and energy saving habits were more evident on average at home than in the workplace across the majority of areas examined. Comparing sustainability habits between subpopulations, physicians were found to engage in energy saving 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 employees over 40 years of age (mean score, 1.7 versus 2.1; p=0.0322).