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Prompted for ways the hospital could reduce its environmental impact, curb its waste stream and save money, BWH employees responded with nearly 700 ideas during last month’s “Go Green” contest.
“The contest was a major success and speaks volumes of our BWH community,” said Leo Buckley Jr., director of Business Services for Patient Care Services, who co-chairs the Product Utilization Review Committee with Andrew Madden, director of Materials Management. “We look forward to rolling up our sleeves and implementing some of the great ideas we received.”
The “Go Green” contest encouraged BWH employees to help identify products and practices that would reduce waste, save money and be environmentally friendly. The staff who submitted the top ideas would receive prizes ranging from sporting event tickets and gift certificates to a grand prize of a 26-inch flat screen LCD TV.
The grand prize winning idea came from Regina Piszcz, materials manager of OR/CSS, who suggested instituting reusable head rests and elbow pads for the OR to reduce disposable waste and save more than $150,000 a year. Jim McKinnon, supervisor in Materials Management, won a pair of Celtics tickets by suggesting an office furniture swap site to make surplus equipment in one department or unit available to others.
Karen Aneshansley from Orthopedic Surgery, Stephanie Donovan, RN, of the NICU, Elaine Garland of the Friends of BWH, Ronna Gersh Zaremski, RN, of Tower 14CD, Patrick Lally of Retail Services, and Joany Sasso, RN, of OR Neuro Pod, all received gas cards for their suggestions. Their ideas included departmental filtered-water systems to reduce the cost, waste and inconvenience of large-bottled cooler systems, and an office supply exchange bank to share surplus supplies by contributing to and taking from a collection of excess supplies gathered from departments and offices throughout the hospital.
Stay tuned for “Go Green” updates and progress reports.
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