Question by Gregg Lichtenstein, MD, MBA

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I'm medical director of a large college health center. We moved into a new, more energy efficient facility in 2006. I'm a member of an informal campus group looking at sustainability issues. I'm wondering if anyone has seriously analyzed at sustainability issues in medical facilities, particularly outpatient facilities. For example, do the environmental consequences of using cloth gowns (power & water used to wash gowns, energy used to transport them back and forth to a cleaner) outweight those of disposable paper ones? Fortunately, many of our patients only have to selectively uncloth parts of their bodies during the exams, obviating the need for either. Also, has anyone come up with a better method of disposal for medical waste such plastic syringes and specula? I see that there are are companies like http://www.wr2.net/wr2_usa/usa/medical.html that provide alternatives to burning this waste, but it still seems to go into landfills.

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