Stewardship UMMC’s Sustainability and Waste Reduction Efforts Yield Impressive Results University of Maryland Medical Center is one of many organizations developing and implementing “Green” initiatives and sustainability programs. Not only is UMMC able to reduce its environmental impact; it is also able to reduce costs by developing more efficient programs requiring fewer resources to fulfill UMMC’s needs. One such program is the reduction in biohazardous waste within the facility, championed by Denise Choiniere, MS, RN, Director of Sustainability, Materials Management, and In-house Construction as well as Leonard Taylor, Senior Vice President for Operations and Support Services. Prior to 2010, all waste at UMMC was treated as regulated medical waste (RMW). Regulated medical waste — a contaminated article that releases liquid or semiliquid blood or another potentially infectious material if compressed — requires special handling and treatment during disposal. After instituting separation policies, UMMC determined that 50% of the waste stream and 60% of waste removal costs were from RMW. In an effort to further reduce RMW, UMMC engaged with Reduction in Motion to enhance waste separation procedures through LEAN methodologies. The result: a reduction in RMW through hands-on procedural enhancement in the trash room and dock, an increase of recycling bins, a reduction in RMW bins, and providing numerous educational presentations. The three effective interventions developed by both UMMC teams and Reduction in Motion — waste separation, creating a centralized RMW collection model, and reducing the amount of containers — have shown a consistent downward trend of RMW, as UMMC aims to reduce its RMW to the national average of 15%. In addition to waste reduction, UMMC has also brought costs associated with RMW removal down from $4.80 per adjusted patient day (apd) in 2010 to an all-time low of $1.87/apd in 2012. The team expects these positive results to continue as it spreads these programs hospital wide.
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2013 UMMC N ur sin g A n n ua l R ep ort
Denise Choiniere, MS, RN, Director of Sustainability, Materials Management, and In-house Construction