Media Advisory

Contact:Lauren Smith

(202) 591-4065

For Immediate Release: March 26, 2012

Healthier Hospitals Initiative Challenges Hospitals to Adopt

Sustainability Measures for Better Health, Cost Savings

- Six New Challenges Will Serve as Roadmap to Healthier Communities -

What: Ten leading health systems are joining together on April 3to challenge the health care industry to take healing and caring beyond hospital walls, through the Healthier Hospitals Initiative (HHI). HHI is aimedat dramatically improving the health care sector’s environmental footprint while saving billions in costs and improving the health and safety of patients, staff and the communitiesacross the country.

During the media briefing, HHI leadership will announce six new Challenges and launch a new national effort to speed adoption of key sustainable operations and share case reports from pilot efforts as well as new resources to help hospitals tackle the challenges. Reporters will be invited to a six-station “show and tell” hosted by sponsoring health systems to demonstrate the changes they have piloted in the past two years.

Why:As research linking environmental impact with chronic disease continues to emerge, hospitals have a unique imperative to reduce their environmental footprint. The Healthier Hospitals Initiative will provide a free framework to support the nation’s hospitals in taking on the six HHI Challenges that will be announced at the briefing. During the next three years, the HHI will demonstrate the impact these strides are having on the health and safety of patients, staff and communities, as well as on health care expenditures.

Who:The Washington, D.C. briefing will feature:

  • Gary Cohen, President and Executive Director of Health Care Without Harm
  • John Messervy, Director of Capital and Facility Planning, Partners HealthCare
  • Knox Singleton, Chief Executive Officer,Inova
  • Kathy Gerwig, Vice President for Workplace Safety and Environmental Stewardship, Kaiser Permanente
  • Brad Perkins, Executive Vice President for Strategy & Innovation and Chief Transformation Officer, Vanguard
  • Representatives from each of HHI’s sponsoring health systems: Advocate Health Care, Bon Secours Health System, Catholic Health Initiatives, Dignity Health (formerly Catholic Healthcare West), Hospital Corporation of America, Inova, Kaiser Permanente, MedStar Health, Partners HealthCare, Tenet Health Systems, and Vanguard Health Systems

When:Tuesday, April 3 from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., EDT

Where:Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health, 700 Second St. NE, Washington, DC 20002

To participate in the briefing via teleconference, please contact Lauren Smith at 202-591-4065.

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