Towards a more environmentally healthy and sustainable hospital. The following is an account of how HCWH member Hospital Fernandez, a 425 bed public hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has taken several steps to green its operations, becoming a model for other health care facilities in the Latin America region.
Buenos Aires — Thanks to the work led by Dr. Carlos Damin, Chief of the Toxicology Division, and Dr. Mirta Borras, Head of the Environmental Area from the same Division, the Fernández Hospital in Buenos Aires is taking huge steps forward towards achieving a healthier non-polluting hospital.
Throughout the last years, Drs. Carlos Damin, and Borras, together with a team of employees committed to implementing sustainable and secure practices in the health sector, have been building the path towards having a healthier health care system. They have already succeeded in eliminating the use of various chemicals that contribute to the development of diseases such as cancer, Parkinson's and reproductive disorders and have also replaced these chemical-based products with others that are less toxic.
Since 2007, they have eliminated the use of mercury thermometers and sphygmomanometers, replacing them with digital thermometers and digital and/or aneroid sphygmomanometers.
Their Neonatology Service has also replaced medical devices containing DEHP PVC (polyvinyl chloride-diethyl hexyl phthalate) and bisphenol A (BPA) with alternatives free of these toxics.
The Hospital has also stopped using glutaraldehyde (mutagenic and genotoxic) for sanitizing and sterilization of surgical and endoscopy items, replacing it with ortho-phthalaldehyde solution. This replacement also included the implementation of safety instructions for its use and an environment created specifically for achieving this purpose.
The working risks associated with the use of products and cleaning items in hospitals were also announced, together with the need of adoption of solutions. In this regard, training sessions were conducted to expand staff’s knowledge about how to protect themselves and the safety of patients.
The content from one container cannot be split in doses using smaller containers (such as plastic bottles) without proper tags or caps identifying what’s in them and its origin. The use of drums is recommended instead.
As a result, the company in charge of cleaning purchased the proper equipment to carry their materials, the products stored in each service were labelled to identify their content and the respective safety data sheets were added.
Dr. Ricardo L. Hermes, Chief of the Hospital’s Laboratory Clinical Analysis Division, implemented technological changes, ensuring a safer working environment and minimal environmental impact.
He has also, during the past three years, eliminated the use of cyanide for counting haemoglobin in blood and implemented the use of dry chemistry for the analysis of biological fluids in clinical chemistry. This technology uses a reactive multilayer thin film on a transparent polyester backing that has been cut to the size of a postal stamp. When adding plasma, serum, urine or cerebrospinal fluid to these layers of dry chemicals, a reaction is produced and measured by the analytical system. This happens without the use of water and without producing liquid effluents that need to be eliminated or treated.
Finally, the Chief of the dentistry Division has firmly committed to restrict the use of dental amalgams, replacing them with composite and lamps, excepting those cases in which stronger fillings are required, taking into consideration all dental diseases, that characterize Argentina’s society (tooth cavities in Argentina are extremely important given that children are fed mostly with a carbohydrate-based diet and the lack of hygiene standards and tooth controls).