The following is a guest article by Steve Lazer, Global Healthcare and Life Sciences CTO at Dell Technologies
Healthcare services play a vital role in enhancing human well-being, but it’s essential to recognize that they also leave an environmental footprint contributing to environment-related health threats.
According to a report from the environmental advocacy group Health Care Without Harm, the U.S. healthcare industry is responsible for 7.6 percent of the nation’s total “climate footprint.” While this might seem like a relatively low number, when we are talking about working towards a net zero economy, every industry’s emissions add up. At Dell Technologies, we understand the significance of sustainability in healthcare and aim to help address the industry’s environmental impact.
From a carbon footprint and renewables perspective, healthcare is one of the most challenging sectors within which to reach a level of sustainability. When addressing sustainability, we can look at emissions in the following way: direct emissions from equipment and vehicles, energy consumed at care facilities, and the creation and disposal of medical waste.
Direct Emissions
One of the main ways to lower emissions is through building automation. Building Automation Systems are centralized, computer-based systems that use sensors, controllers, and other devices to monitor and control a variety of building systems, including heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, and security. These systems can reduce the utilization of energy, thereby reducing the amount of emissions from the electric grid and on-site combustion that contribute to global warming and climate change. Such systems can reduce energy consumption in commercial buildings by up to 29%, according to this Clean Energy Manufacturing Analysis Center report.
Healthcare facilities can also generate renewable energy such as solar based on rooftops and parking areas, and switch to the use of geothermal capabilities and other efficient sources of energy.
Reducing Emissions with Building Automation
Hospitals are substantial energy consumers due to their continuous operation and high daily footfall of employees, patients, and visitors. Running around the clock, these facilities employ sophisticated heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to maintain precise temperature and air quality control. Within their walls, numerous energy-intensive activities take place, such as laundry services, the operation of medical and laboratory equipment, sterilization processes, extensive computer and server usage, food service operations, and refrigeration needs. As a result, hospitals consume about 2.5 times more energy than the typical US office building – presenting a great opportunity for reduced costs and emissions through increased energy efficiency.
Building automation and controls can support energy consumption minimization and operating efficiency. These facility management capabilities rely on sensors and controls to support the automation within the facility that will do things such as efficient lighting when the facility is not occupied. Additional opportunities exist, such as temperature and ventilation control, lighting management, and efficient space utilization.
Cold chain management and enterprise-scale refrigeration control can also go a long way in reducing energy consumption in the Healthcare sector.
Sustainable Waste Management
Due to sanitization and infection control capabilities, healthcare requires the use of many disposables. These disposables can have an impact on the environment: not just through their usage, but also through the supply chain that gets the disposables into the hospital.
Hospitals should invest in supply chain capabilities that limit waste generation and promote the efficient use of supplies. Advanced technologies like computer vision can help monitor and manage surgical supply kits, optimizing their usage during procedures. Other opportunities to minimize the carbon footprint also exist, such as:
- Utilizing equipment and technology designed for renewing or reuse
- Determining the carbon footprint of the technology placed and to be replaced throughout facility locations
- Leveraging computer vision capabilities to aid in space utilization, operational efficiency, and supply chain management
Technology Considerations
Healthcare runs on technology and utilizes data in a sprawling environment of software solutions and research technologies, and a large number of these solutions run on legacy applications, creating challenges like licensing, support, reliability, enhanced data retention requirements, and security problems. New applications are often bolted on without the consideration of the retirement of older applications even though they may offer similar or identical functionality. New applications, combined with inefficient sunsetting procedures, are adding to the complexity of the IT environment in modern healthcare organizations. We need a new perspective regarding healthcare technologies in order to maximize the environmental impact of digital transformation.
The process for refreshing and replacing applications within the healthcare system should be simplified with an audit of the current scope and related historical information. Replacement of functionality needs to be considered carefully and decisions around new solutions should include the end users of the related applications. Only then will organizations be able to optimize their technology footprint and deliver IT solutions in the most efficient manner possible.
In addition to the IT applications, healthcare organizations also need to assess the underlying infrastructure. Refreshing the hardware environments allow for increased operating temperatures within data centers and reduced carbon demand to maintain operational temperatures.
This modernization process can dramatically impact the energy utilization of data centers supporting healthcare as power represents 60–70 percent of the total operational cost (TOC) of a data center. To address these challenges, Dell Technologies is advancing sustainable computing to help transform healthcare organizations in a low-carbon economy. For example, modern Dell storage solutions are architected for adaptive cooling to reduce energy consumption. Our fans speed up as environmental temperatures rise, or CPU usage increases, to maintain optimal temperatures without using any more energy than needed. This means that Dell PowerEdge servers have reduced the energy intensity of the solution portfolio by 83% since 2013. And PowerMax delivers 5 times the capacity per kilo-volt-ampere (kVA), representing a more than 80% energy reduction to deliver the same workload. Today, Dell has more ENERGY STAR® storage certifications than any other storage vendor.
Embracing the Path to Sustainability
In closing, it’s clear that there are opportunities to improve the sustainability of the healthcare system around every corner if we look with the right lens. The examples in this article can create dramatic opportunities for not only carbon footprint reduction but cost reduction too.
As a company that is strongly committed to taking action on climate change, Dell Technologies believes in the critical role sustainability can play within the healthcare system. By utilizing innovative technologies and adopting environmentally responsible practices, healthcare providers can achieve higher levels of efficiency and contribute positively to environmental preservation. It is our mission to support the healthcare industry in becoming a vital force in the fight against climate change and to save lives and the planet.
About Steve Lazer
Steve is the Global Healthcare and Life Sciences CTO for Dell Technologies. He brings robust Health IT competencies and management strategies to healthcare organizations ensuring successful Healthcare IT solution delivery. He drives technical strategy and solutions development for Healthcare and ISV technical relationships including joint solutions R&D, technical advisory, and technical escalation processes. Steve is part of one of the strongest healthcare practices in the technology industry with a heritage of more than 30 years building solutions around the globe with clinical ISV partners and providing essential technology infrastructure to hospitals of all sizes.
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