The Emergency Department at Prince of Wales Hospital in New South Wales, Australia, took part in RCEM’s GreenED International pilot programme and was one of nine sites to achieve a Bronze award.
Francesca Curry was the GreenED Site Lead and explains their award journey.
Why did you decide to sign up to RCEM’s GreenED programme?
Prince of Wales ED signed up to the GreenED programme due to its proven success in UK and its easy-to-follow steps that were based on evidence in a well-supported environment. The world of sustainable healthcare is massive and having a framework to work with in a bite-sized manner was excellent for a department starting its grassroots steps in this field.
How did your department (e.g. consultant body, NUM) and/or LHD support you to take part in GreenED?
GreenED was funded by our hospital’s foundation as an award. Our emergency department director and head of nursing were supportive of the project and suggested team members that were already active in this space in the emergency department. Our team only grew further from here.
What are some of the key successes you would like to showcase that your department achieved through the GreenED international pilot?
- Creation of MDT GreenED team – consultants, registrars, junior medical officers, RNs, NPs, physio, pharmacists, admin, patient liaison officer and university student. And engagement with wider hospital to spread initiatives.
- Commute to work weeks biannually – data collected showed 2/3rd of department using with active or public transport after this initiative
- Engagement in switch-off project including creation of innovative video with ideas for activity whilst waiting for screen to turn on (therefore removing the main barrier), which has been spread to other health districts as a shared resource
- Assisting creation of shared education resources for corporate orientation to include sustainable health
Are there any other benefits of shopfloor environmental sustainability projects that you would like to highlight?
GreenED has come with multiple co-benefits:
- Health of our ED workers (active transport week and engagement in step up challenge)
- Creation of community and shared goals – this has been particularly relevant with significant overcrowding and stress in a busy department
- Shared decision making with medical teams and patients regarding use of cannulation and need for iv fluids/medications and reducing testing that could potentially harm patients and lengthen their stay unnecessarily.
What would you say to other Emergency Medicine clinicians who are thinking about signing up to GreenED?
This is a well thought out, easy to follow initiative with helpful tips and templates that have been used by multiple EDs across the world now. We don’t need to re-invent the wheel, we need to get the wheels moving and GreenED is a great start to any department wherever they are in their sustainable health care journey.