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The Green Office Challenge
The Coalition, PEACH Health Ontario and the HFHT Green Team, with sponsorship from HP, are hosting a NATIONAL COMPETITION to determine the greenest primary care office in the Country!
The Ask: Answer questions and score your practice in eleven different areas of sustainability. HINT: The scorecard is heavily guided by the Green Office Toolkit.
Timeline: The questionnaire is now open for submissions. The deadline for all questionnaires is October 15th, 2024. Winners will be announced in Fall/Winter 2024.
Prize: One office will be awarded the title of Greenest Primary Care Office in Canada along with a complementary prize. We will also be awarding outstanding offices in each province and HFHT has decided to recognize one outstanding office in Hamilton, ON.
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WEBINAR - Preparing for climate change at health care facilities: Air quality and smoke management
Date: July 10th, 2024
Time: 9am PT/12pm ET
Poor air quality caused by wildfire smoke poses major health risks for individuals and communities. With climate-related emergencies expected to worsen in the coming years, health care facilities will need to act swiftly to disaster-proof life-saving infrastructure to protect vulnerable patients and the health care workforce. For smoke-related issues, this may require essential structural and ventilation interventions.
Join the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care, PEACH Health Ontario and CASCADES as we welcome Dr. Courtney Howard to discuss the health impacts of smoke and Abdel Darwhich to detail smoke management for health care settings.
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Leadership for Change: Toward Sustainable Health Systems
Enhance your ability to lead change in the health sector amidst significant environmental and sustainability challenges. Through pre-work, interactive sessions, and debriefings, this course from CASCADES addresses the complexities of transforming the health sector for sustainability.
The Fall 2024 offering includes four four-hour sessions on Tuesdays, spaced two weeks apart:
- September 17, 2024
- October 1, 2024
- October 15, 2024
- October 29, 2024
Sessions run from 9:00am-1:00pm PT, 12:00-4:00pm ET, and 1:00-5:00pm AT.
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Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program (ZEVIP) - NOW OPEN
Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) is now accepting applications for its Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure Program (ZEVIP), offering up to 50% in subsidies for Canadian private and public sector companies, and up to 75% for Indigenous organisations, towards the deployment of EV charging stations.
Learn more HERE.
FLO, a Canadian company and one of the largest charging network operators in North America, will host live webinars to provide more details on this subsidy program, the steps to apply, and how to select the right charging solutions for your organisation.
Register for the webinar HERE.
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IFHE Global Health Care Carbon Challenge | |
We’re “cutting the carbs!” Join your fellow health care facilities around the world in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. That’s right — the International Federation of Healthcare Engineering, with support from Mazzetti, is hosting a global health care carbon challenge. The goal is to reduce GHG emissions across health care facilities, globally. Awards for “best in country” and “best in world” reductions will be awarded on stage at the IFHE’s Annual Congress in Cape Town, South Africa in 2024.
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Health professionals meet to further the climate change and health agenda
World Health Organization
Health professionals convened in Geneva on June 10, 2024, to discuss advancing the climate change and health agenda. Over 150 attendees from various health sectors participated. Discussions emphasized the importance of aligning institutional capabilities with individual competencies to enhance public health and climate action.
Key organisations shared their climate and health initiatives, highlighting the role of health professionals in advocating for low-carbon health systems and influencing high-level decisions.
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Climate disasters require emergency plans for dialysis patients, experts say
CTV News
The likelihood of more disasters, including wildfires and droughts, has nephrologists calling for better emergency planning across the country to ensure that uniquely vulnerable dialysis patients have access to treatment without which kidney failure could cause life-threatening conditions or death.
Dr. Shaifali Sandal, a transplant nephrologist at the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, is working on a project with the Canadian Society of Nephrology to determine how best to manage kidney patients during disasters.
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Health care evacuations are the 'new normal.' Here are lessons from Alberta's last wildfire season
CBC News
At the 2023 Physicians Appreciation Dinner in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Candice Edey announced the urgent need to prepare for an influx of 43 wildfire-evacuated patients. The hospital, already an ad hoc staging centre three times that season, readied for the arrival of patients from High Prairie.
Cale Holmstrom, an AHS clinical operations manager, coordinated patient transfers, avoiding aircraft due to smoke and opting for a safer, longer route. The Grande Prairie Regional Hospital set up a makeshift triage area. Staff demonstrated resilience and creativity, highlighting the necessity of comprehensive planning as wildfire evacuations become the "new normal." Lessons included creating a live patient evacuation tracker.
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Pharmaceuticals in the environment: Impact on non-target organisms
Hospital News
Pharmacy's impact on planetary health focuses on greenhouse gas emissions, physical waste, and pharmaceuticals as chemical contaminants. This article highlights the latter, noting that 88% of drugs enter the environment through human excretion. Wastewater treatment plants often fail to remove these pharmaceuticals, leading to environmental contamination.
Drug disposal and manufacturing account for the remaining entry routes. Drugs affect wildlife due to shared physiology with humans, exemplified by diclofenac causing vulture deaths and synthetic estrogen disrupting minnow populations. Actions to mitigate these impacts include reducing drug waste, better inventory management, and integrating sustainability into health care practices and strategic plans.
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Health care lessons from unprecedented fire season
CBC Listen
| Health-care workers are making sure they're ready for increasingly severe wildfire seasons. An EMS manager and hospital co-ordinator share how they evacuated high-needs patients from northern Alberta towns affected by wildfires in 2023. And how their best practices have already been tested this year. | |
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Does examination table paper use mitigate the risk of disease transmission in family medicine clinic?
Annuals of Family Medicine
Reducing examination table paper (ETP) use may help curb carbon emissions from health care. Six participants applied Glo Germ (DMA International) to their hands before a common physical examination (abdominal, cardiorespiratory, hip and knee) both with and without ETP. After each exam, UV light was shined on the exam table and photographs were taken.
The number of hand touches on ETP-covered areas and uncovered areas were tallied and compared using t tests. Despite covering more surface area, participants touched areas without ETP significantly more than ETP-covered areas.
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Reusable health care textiles for use in personal protective equipment
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is a critical part of infection prevention and health care worker (HCW) protection. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed gaps in the ability of health care systems to ensure HCWs have adequate access to PPE during times of surge in demand, placing both HCWs and patients at risk. In March 2024, the National Academies convened a public workshop to identify opportunities to increase the use of reusable health care textiles (HCTs) used for PPE in health care settings. Speakers emphasized reusable textiles' potential to protect health care staff and their patients, reduce waste and environmental effects from disposable HCTs, prepare for future pandemics, and provide cost savings.
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Food Infrastructures for Planetary Health Playbook
CASCADES
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The Food Infrastructures for Planetary Health playbook supports informed decision-making related to food infrastructures throughout the planning, design, construction and ongoing operation of Canadian health care facilities.
Food is not only critical to provide adequate nutrition for healing, but it can further improve the patient experience, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other negative environmental impacts, as well as foster valuable relationships with communities and food providers. This playbook provides information, resources and guiding questions for diverse actors within the health care system key to enabling change, including: leaders; food services, facilities, sustainability, and procurement staff; clinicians and public health professionals.
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Federal government to announce long-awaited funding to replace deteriorating northern Ontario hospital
CBC News
The Canadian government announced an additional $1.2 billion in funding to redevelop the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority (WAHA) hospital in Moosonee, Ontario. This investment will support the construction of a new hospital facility, administrative offices, staff accommodations, and an Ambulatory Care Centre.
The redevelopment aims to improve health care access for the 12,000 people in the Weeneebayko region, ensuring culturally responsive care and addressing long-standing disparities.
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Health facilities preparation for extreme heat: Recommendations for retirement and care facility managers
Government of Canada
Health Canada's guidelines for retirement and care facility managers offer strategies to mitigate risks from extreme heat. Recommendations include monitoring indoor temperatures, enhancing air flow, and using cooling equipment like fans and air conditioners.
Staff should be educated on heat illness symptoms and emergency procedures. Facilities should have plans for patient care, ensuring access to cooling areas and maintaining hydration. Emergency plans should address surge staffing and backup power needs. New facility designs should consider environmental impacts and integrate public health insights to reduce heat risks.
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Version 9.1 of the RETScreen® Clean Energy Management Software platform is now available for download from the RETScreen website. This update has arrived with a number of salient new features to enhance the RETScreen experience!
One of the latest features is an automated Net Zero Planning Tool which further enables portfolio-wide decarbonization planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting – all available within one single multilingual platform. Learn more about the new tool HERE.
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EVENTS, TRAINING AND WEBINARS | |
Registration is now open! CHES 2024 National Conference - Sept. 8th-10th | |
The 2024 CHES National Chapter Conference & Trade Show will be held in Halifax Nova Scotia on September 8th-10th.
The theme for this year’s conference is: "Enriching Patient Experiences by Optimizing the Environment"
Registration is now open!
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Have you registered as an organ donor?
Contact your local organ donation agency and speak to your family about your wishes. You have the power to save and transform lives. Learn more and register to donate HERE.
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The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care is Canada’s premier green health care resource network, leading the evolution of green in Canada’s health sector as a national voice and catalyst for environmental change. www.greenhealthcare.ca | |
Some articles referred to in the Digest make reference to services and/or product offerings from specific suppliers. The CCGHC recommends that readers research the service and product offerings available through a wider range of suppliers for comparison purposes and in keeping with public sector purchasing guidelines. These articles should not be interpreted as an endorsement of any product or service. | | | | |
