A partnership between Stanford Health Care and Stanford Medicine Children’s Health
Claire Baniel, MD
Resident Physician
Department of Oncology
Project
Quality Improvement Waste Audits: An Opportunity to Increase Environmental Stewardship in Healthcare
Project Description
Operating rooms (OR) have been identified as a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, in part due to their waste generation, producing an estimated 30% of hospital waste. This team will reduce procedural waste in radiation oncology through implementation of waste audit findings and nationally through development of a publicly accessible brachytherapy waste audit toolkit to engage oncologists in environmental stewardship. Further opportunities to reduce waste and rethink important aspects of care include telehealth, thereby reducing Scope 3 transportation-associated emissions.
Impact
The team estimates a 30% reduction of biohazardous waste per brachytherapy procedure would reduce biohazardous waste generation at Main Campus by 330 lbs. in a year.
Collaborators
Melissa Frick, MD
Resident Physician
Department of Radiation Oncology
Hilary Bagshaw, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor
Department of Radiation Oncology
Lisa Sheih, MD, PhD
Clinical Professor
Department of Hospital Medicine
Achievements & Affiliations
Invited Lecturer. Penn State Medical School. Climate and Health Elective Course. “Healthcare Waste & Climate Smart Health Care (U.S.)” January 5, 2023. Virtual.
Invited Speaker and Panelist. “Resident Led Quality Improvement: A Six Minute Waste Audit Toolkit”. NorCal Symposium for Climate, Health and Equity. September 23, 2022. Virtual.
Selected for oral presentation, Resident Travel Award Recipient: “ A Six Minute Brachytherapy Waste Audit: A feasible, efficient method for identifying opportunities to enhance the environmental sustainability of a radiation oncology department.”
Selected for asynchronous oral presentation. “Development of Oncology Based Lectures on Climate Change and Health: Understanding Climate Change’s Effect on Cancer Care & Physicians’ Roles.”
Our Sustainability Champions
Stanford Medicine is delighted to provide visibility and recognition to these industry-leading health care sustainability champions.