Healthcare facilities provide services to achieve quality medical outcomes. These activities combine to utilize energy and materials with a significant impact on economics, social effects, and the environment. The relationship of these impacts to quality of service/medical outcomes is a substantial research need. The research featured in this workshop addresses the principles of relating energy and materials to individual healthcare services as a critical link to the actual services decision-makers (e.g. those operating the imaging services, selecting dialysis procedures, etc). The emphasis is not as economists, but a larger focus on energy (and energy effects), materials life cycles including waste streams, and medical outcomes. The goal is to better understand these relations (not just costs) as a more fundamental structure to seek sustainability improvements. The workshop has a broad and exploratory agenda to encourage cross-discipline exposure. The goal is early information regarding the energy and mass flow for engineering design or technologies (e.g. imaging, dialysis, supply chain, the built environment) as these impact on healthcare services and ultimately medical outcomes. The workshop exchange with similar evidence-based medical developments will add a vital dimension to the workshop. The general format will involve 30 minute papers and extensive discussion around four over-arching healthcare themes: healthcare and the environment, healthcare and comparative effectiveness research, technology for improved outcomes, and processes and systems design for improved outcomes. A small identified working group will synthesize workshop discussion and develop a roadmap for the development of energy/mass flow information. The two day workshop is organized by Professors Janet Twomey (janet.twomey@wichita.edu) and Michael Overcash (mrovercash@earthlink.net).
Introduction Healthcare facilities provide services to achieve quality medical outcomes. The United States healthcare sector is expected to comprise about 18% of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010. Such services can be broken into 17 general activities (EPA, 2005) from pharmacy to imaging to emergency care to heating/air conditioning. These activities combined to utilize energy and materials have a significant impact on economics, social effects, and the environment. The relationship of these impacts to quality-of-service/medical outcomes is a substantial research need and the subject of this workshop. Statistics and information-related energy consumed by healthcare is sparse when compared to other commercial types and sectors of the economy. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports regulated wastes and emissions according to healthcare facilities and activities in a Compliance Sector Notebook on the Healthcare Industry as an aggregate (EPA, 2005). The Department of Energy (DOE) reports energy use according to healthcare facility size and energy source (DOE, 2008). These reports, while informative in the broad sense, do not provide sufficient granularity in order to make decisions and determinations regarding specific impacts in particular areas of the healthcare industry. The research featured in this workshop addressed the principles of relating energy and materials to individual healthcare services as a critical link to actual services decision-makers. The emphasis is not as economists but rather a larger focus on energy (and energy effects), material life cycles including waste streams, and medical outcomes. The goal was to better understand these relations (not just costs) as a more fundamental structure to seek improvement. The workshop had a broad and exploratory agenda to encourage cross-discipline exposure as a basis for early information regarding the energy/mass flow of the impact of general engineering/technologies (e.g., imaging, dialysis, supply chain, the built environment) on healthcare services and ultimately medical outcomes. The exchange with similar evidence-based medical developments added a vital dimension to the workshop. Design of the Workshop This workshop was designed to bring together a diverse set of speakers and attendees for a day and a half to share information, knowledge, and recent research findings in areas deemed critical to assessing the current level of knowledge on energy use in healthcare, and linking that information to medical systems, decision-making, and medical outcomes research. The outcome of the workshop was a roadmap for future work and collaborations. The general format involved 30-minute papers and extensive discussion around three over- arching themes: i) Healthcare and the environment. ii) Healthcare and comparative effectiveness research. iii) Processes and systems design for improved outcomes. A synthesis of workshop discussion and development of the next steps was accomplished by a small working group: i) Michael Overcash, Ph.D. (PI) ii) Janet Twomey, Ph.D. (PI) iii) Theresa S. Radebaugh, Sc.D. (Discussant), Carl and Rozina Cassat Professor in Aging and Director of the Regional Institute on Aging, Wichita State University iv) M. Michele Mariscalco, M.D. (Discussant), Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Dean for Research, University of Kansas School of Medicine, Wichita Workshop Objectives and Expected Outcomes The workshop was intended to advance the knowledge base in healthcare services by exploring the intersection of materials/energy flows with a broad range of healthcare themes. The objectives of the workshop were: 1. To identify those themes in healthcare services where the careful examination of the relationship of energy and materials flows to quality/patient outcomes will have the greatest potential for improvement (however that may be defined). 2. To create an environment for open and creative exchange of knowledge and ideas from a diverse set of experts in healthcare services, including operations research, materials engineering, environmental life cycles, healthcare quality, medicine, nursing, aging, etc. 3. To broaden the knowledge of workshop participants and attendees. 4. To draft a roadmap for the creation of healthcare services mass/energy modules: a. Roadblocks, new research, and influences on decisions as the result of linking medical outcomes to energy improvement. b. A network of potential collaborators. c. Resource development for advancing research and implementation. d. Communication and information sharing venues (conference, web sites).
