Outpatient Surgery Magazine

OR Excellence Award Winners - September 2017 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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7 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 7 urgery generates about one-fourth of all the waste a hospital generates — from clear plastic to blue wrap to white card- board — waste that inevitably ends up clogging a landfill somewhere. But Maggie Tharp, BSN, RN, CNOR, says it doesn't have to. She would know. Earlier this year, Ms. Tharp and other team mem- bers from Deaconess Hospital in Evansville, Ind., dreamed up an inventive way to reduce the hospital's carbon footprint: a "clean-waste recycling program" encompassing 29 operating rooms spread across 3 campuses. "I was a naysayer before we started this, but it wasn't because I did- n't believe in it," says Ms. Tharp, clinical educator of surgical services ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP How to Become a Green Machine Environmentally conscious Deaconess Hospital finds value in a recycling program aimed at "doing what's right." • CLEANING UP Clean waste from items opened during a case gets placed in a special blue container and hauled away later for recycling. Deaconess Hospital

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