Green Cystoscopy: Does Minimizing the Use of Drapes Increase Infection Rates?

Importance: The U.S. health care system has an enormous carbon footprint made worse by the escalating use of single-use supplies.

The Use of Disposable Supplies: Measuring Suburethral Sling Surgical Waste by Cost and Weight.

Importance: The health care industry is a leading contributor to solid waste in the United States, and two thirds of a hospital's regulated medical waste is produced from surgery.

Objective: The primary objective was to assess the utilization of single-use disposable supplies during suburethral sling cases.

Study Design: We observed suburethral sling plus cystoscopy procedures at an academic medical center.

Going green in gynecology: a call to action.

The climate change crisis poses a central threat to public health. The health outcomes of this crisis are well known, but lesser known to medical professionals is the role that healthcare delivery plays in worsening this crisis. The United States healthcare system is responsible for producing 10% of the total greenhouse gases.

Strategies to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Laparoscopic Surgery.

Objectives: To determine the carbon footprint of various sustainability interventions used for laparoscopic hysterectomy.

Methods: We designed interventions for laparoscopic hysterectomy from approaches that sustainable health care organizations advocate. We used a hybrid environmental life cycle assessment framework to estimate greenhouse gas emissions from the proposed interventions.

Attitude of US obstetricians and gynaecologists to global warming and medical waste.

Objectives: Global warming (or climate change) is a major public health issue, and health services are one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions in high-income countries. Despite the scale of the health care sector's resource consumption, little is known about the attitude of physicians and their willingness to participate in efforts to reduce the environmental impact of health services.

Methods: A survey of 236 obstetricians and gynaecologists at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Western Pennsylvania, USA.

Life cycle assessment perspectives on delivering an infant in the US.

This study introduces life cycle assessment as a tool to analyze one aspect of sustainability in healthcare: the birth of a baby. The process life cycle assessment case study presented evaluates two common procedures in a hospital, a cesarean section and a vaginal birth. This case study was conducted at Magee-Womens Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which delivers over 10,000 infants per year.