The Role of Healthcare Professionals in Environmental Compliance

Photo by Anna Shvets via Pexels

With climate change becoming an ever-growing concern, sustainability and environmental compliance standards are rapidly evolving. The relationship between climate change and healthcare is troubling, and the U.S. healthcare industry is among the top contributors to climate change, accounting for a quarter of global healthcare emissions. Professionals within this industry have a responsibility to address environmental concerns. 

Not only is the sustainability of the healthcare industry, or lack thereof, a threat to the environment, but it also contributes to an increase in public health problems and reduced patient care. 

As climate change worsens air pollution, it can lead to higher rates of chronic health conditions, such as heart and lung diseases. One reason this is such an issue in healthcare settings is that many nurses and doctors are not properly educated on environmental issues and how they can impact public health. 

This is particularly a problem for low-income individuals and people of color, who are disproportionately affected by the negative effects of climate change because they tend to live in areas that make them more vulnerable to pollutants. It’s also an issue for older adults or anyone with a compromised or weakened immune system. As a result, many patients are not getting the quality care they need to address health issues triggered or worsened by climate change. 

As healthcare facilities and workers play a vital role in providing essential medical care to communities and patients, they are responsible for ensuring environmental health and safety compliance to protect both the public and the environment. 

Creating a Sustainable and Compliant Environment

In healthcare settings, sustainability is about integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) into their processes and strategies. This means creating a sustainable workplace culture, providing equitable patient care, and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. 

Addressing the first issue, sustainability in the workplace, requires finding ways to reduce energy consumption, educating healthcare staff on sustainability best practices, and adopting a more accessible recycling system. Considering more reusable items also helps instead of single-use disposables, such as items used in healthcare breakrooms, offices, and cafeterias. 

Equitable patient care is more challenging to address, which we will get into more in another section, but the key goal should be to ensure all patients receive the quality care they need based on how they are either directly or indirectly impacted by their surroundings. Doing so requires moving away from a one-size-fits-all care approach and considering a patient’s environment, such as living in a lower-income area where they are more vulnerable to the effects of climate change. 

Governance is about ensuring compliance with environmental regulations. Regulatory frameworks in healthcare are crucial and should involve compliance with OSHA standards, EPA regulations, Joint Commission requirements, and other state and local regulations. 

Environmental laws in the healthcare industry are vital to ensuring facilities meet sustainability goals and protect the health and safety of patients. These laws and governing bodies include:

• The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act regulates the handling and disposal of medical waste.

• The Clean Air and Clean Water Acts regulate healthcare emissions and pollutants in the air and water systems.

• The Toxic Substances Control Act regulates the manufacturing, use, and disposal of harmful substances, such as chemicals used in healthcare settings.

• The Occupational Safety and Health Administration sets standards for employee safety and addresses issues concerning exposure to bloodborne pathogens and hazardous chemicals.

• The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act requires healthcare facilities to report when hazardous substances have been released to local, state, and federal authorities.

• The National Environmental Policy Act requires healthcare agencies to assess the environmental impacts of their actions. 

Creating a sustainable and compliant healthcare setting is more than simply addressing environmental impacts. It is a holistic approach that addresses every element of healthcare and its connection to the environment and climate change, including workplace and business processes, patient care, and regulatory compliance. 

The Importance of Environmental Compliance in Healthcare

We’ve addressed what sustainability and environmental compliance mean, but now, let’s examine why this issue is so important.

Not only is climate change straining healthcare facilities by disrupting physical infrastructure and supply chains, adding stress to healthcare workers, and making it more challenging to address patient needs, but the healthcare industry itself also largely contributes to climate change due to high rates of carbon emissions and toxic waste. This is leading to a vicious cycle where climate change makes healthcare worse, and healthcare makes climate change worse. 

For instance, more frequent natural disasters caused by climate change can damage healthcare facilities and strain supply chains, leading to drug and medical supply shortages. When floods or hurricanes wipe through an area, much like Hurricane Katrina, it can leave hospitals flooded and without power, resulting in subpar care conditions. 

Human health is also getting worse as a result of climate change. According to the World Health Organization, climate change affects food availability and quality, which can exacerbate nutrition crises. Rising temperatures can increase the spread of vector-borne diseases and cause heat-related deaths from heat stress, exhaustion, and stroke. Increased precipitation can lead to floods and hurricanes that cause more injuries, disabilities, and death. Poor air quality from wildfires, carbon emissions, and other pollutants can also increase the risk of chronic health diseases and death. 

An influx of patients experiencing worsening health conditions due to climate change can also put more stress on healthcare workers, especially if there are staffing or supply shortages.

Of course, all of these issues can be exacerbated when the healthcare industry itself contributes to more gas emissions and toxic waste — further highlighting the importance of more effective sustainability initiatives and environmental compliance in healthcare settings.

Responsibilities of Healthcare Workers in Environmental Sustainability

Image by Ivan Samkov via Pexels

Public health professionals play an important part in addressing environmental concerns and their impact on the environment and public health. Healthcare executives and managers can also help mitigate facility impact on the environment and public health by implementing more structural changes and sustainable practices in the workplace. 

Nurses, doctors, and clinicians can help prevent or reduce climate-related health risks by initiating vulnerability and impact assessments on patients resulting from climate-related events and issues. They must also counsel patients on how climate change might be impacting their health and offer suggestions and treatments to help them better manage their condition. 

Healthcare professionals are essential to keeping their workplace compliant with environmental health and safety regulations, such as dealing with toxic waste disposal. All medical professionals have a responsibility to follow medical waste guidelines, but Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) managers, in particular, are the ones responsible for ensuring all staff is aware of environmental compliance standards and following regulations. 

Other public health workers involved in promoting sustainability, compliance, and education include public health researchers, policy coordinators, and healthcare administrators. There are also various healthcare compliance management positions that are vital to environmental health and safety, such as  Compliance Officers, Risk Management Officers, Compliance Consultants, Regulatory Affairs Specialists, and Health Information Managers. 

Anyone working in healthcare can also contribute by participating in conservation initiatives, which are actions that help promote recycling and waste reduction. Environmental stewardship action plans are vital to helping mitigate the ecological impacts of healthcare facility operations. This can include recycling programs, reduce and reuse campaigns, encouraging carpooling, biking to work, or taking public transportation, and spreading awareness about how certain workplace behaviors and processes can negatively impact the environment.  

Integrating Environmental Action Plans for Healthcare 

Image by DNE Stock project via Pexels 

Laying the foundation for effective environmental action plans will take work. In some cases, depending on the existing processes, care procedures, and infrastructure of a facility, it may require an extensive overhaul and adoption of new practices.

A thorough sustainability strategy that addresses all aspects of ESG requires the following:

• Adequate waste management procedures: Not only should waste management be about complying with regulatory standards, but it should also seek to reduce material, medical, and food waste. 

• Staff training and awareness programs: For healthcare professionals to adequately address patient needs in the face of climate change, they must be given more educational opportunities to expand their knowledge and learn new protocols. This is particularly crucial for ensuring equity in care settings. 

• Energy conservation upgrades: There are numerous provider-level upgrades and interventions that can have a more meaningful impact on the environment, such as using more renewable energy sources and implementing energy monitoring systems.

• Regular sustainability audits and inspections: Ensuring a sustainable healthcare sector requires ongoing changes and updates. Facilities and protocols should be regularly monitored, audited, and inspected to check for potential issues and gain insight into what improvements can be made to stay ahead of evolving ESG changes.  

• Feedback loops to foster a culture of continuous improvement: Cross-functional communication across team members and departments is a key element in achieving sustainability goals and implementing successful action plans. 

All of these and more require a lot of time, effort, and money, which can lead to obstacles hindering healthcare facilities from implementing effective action plans. As such, it’s important to be aware of these challenges ahead of time to ensure a more successful strategy for addressing ESG. 

Below are some of the most common barriers to implementing sustainable practices in healthcare:

Individual Barriers

A lack of knowledge and skills among healthcare staff can lead to resistance to change or fear of failure if they do something wrong. Introducing new sustainable practices and procedures can be overwhelming and significantly alter workflows, possibly creating a perception that the changes are too difficult to manage. 

Organizations must provide accessible training opportunities to address these challenges. Highlighting the benefits and motivating healthcare workers to be more open and receptive to changes can also be helpful.

Institutional Barriers

Upgrading infrastructure and adopting new technologies to enhance sustainability and compliance efforts can be costly. It’s not uncommon for healthcare facilities to put ESG strategies on the back burner due to limited financial resources. 

Government and private organizations should consider providing financial ESG incentives to address this barrier. They should also consider working with leadership to get support and buy-in from key stakeholders. 

Clinical Barriers 

Limited awareness and education regarding sustainable practices and climate change are both factors when providing patient care. Sustainable healthcare is a relatively new concept. Not all practitioners and clinicians will understand how to adequately provide equitable care, considering how climate change factors could impact a patient’s health. 

Solving this issue requires educational resources and training programs to fill knowledge gaps and ensure healthcare professionals are providing the best care possible with climate change, sustainability, and environmental compliance in mind.

The future of healthcare jobs is about more than improving patient care. It’s about ensuring all aspects of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) are considered when developing clinical guidelines, operational processes, and updates to infrastructure. While many of these decisions are made at an executive level, healthcare professionals like nurses, doctors, managers, and administrative staff also play an essential role in implementing sustainable practices, ensuring compliance with regulations, providing equitable care to patients, and being environmental stewards in the workplace. 

Everyone must participate, no matter their position, to ensure a more sustainable and resilient future in healthcare. Addressing the effects of climate change on the healthcare sector and vice versa requires a collaborative and coordinated effort with more impactful actions.