Dignity Health, one of the nation’s five largest health systems, today announced that nine of its hospitals were honored for their commitment to environmental excellence by Practice Greenhealth.

“Dignity Health has been an environmental leader for more than 15 years, paving the way with many industry firsts,” said Mary Ellen Leciejewski, OP, Director of Ecology, Dignity Health. “It’s always been a part of our values and mission as we focus on healing the patient and healing the planet. We’re proud of the achievements our hospitals have made and look forward to accomplishing much more in the future.”

As a partner in creating the Healthier Hospitals Initiative (HHI), Dignity Health supports the guidelines developed for the health care community regarding reducing energy and waste, choosing safer and less toxic products, and purchasing and serving healthier foods. Dignity Health has made significant improvements as reported in its annual CSR Report and continues to make progress towards its goals.

• Less Waste: HHI’s Less Waste challenge supports a 15 percent recycling rate compared to total waste. Dignity Health’s FY 2013 recycling rate is 26 percent.
• Safer Chemicals: Dignity Health has accepted the Safer Chemicals challenge to purchase 90 percent Green Seal or EcoLogo certified cleaning products. In FY 2012, 38 percent of dollars spent on cleaning products was spent on green cleaners/no chemical cleaning and in FY 2013, 46 percent.
• Healthy Food: This challenge entails achieving local and/or sustainable food purchases of 15 percent of total food dollar purchases in three years. In FY 2012, 35 percent of Dignity Health’s food dollars were spent on sustainable foods. The goal is to increase its spend on sustainable foods by 20 percent.
• Smarter Purchasing: HHI’s Smarter Purchasing challenge calls for increasing expenditure of reprocessed FDA-eligible single use devices by 50 percent. In FY 2013, Dignity Health spent nearly $7 million on reprocessed single use devices, a 53.5 percent increase over the FY 2010 spend.

Dignity Health Environmental Excellence Awards Recipients

The Practice Greenhealth awards are very competitive and recognize health care facilities that have achieved improvements in sustainability and showed leadership in the local community and health care sector. Dignity Health was honored with the following Practice Greenhealth awards:

Greenhealth Emerald Award

• Mercy Gilbert Medical Center, Gilbert, Ariz.

Greenhealth Partner for Change Award

• California Hospital Medical Center, Los Angeles, Calif.
• Community Hospital of San Bernardino, San Bernardino, Calif.
• Dominican Hospital, Santa Cruz, Calif.
• St. Bernardine Medical Center, San Bernardino, Calif.
• St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital, Camarillo, Calif.
• St. John’s Regional Medical Center, Oxnard, Calif.                                                            
• St. Joseph’s Medical Center, Stockton, Calif.

Partner Recognition Award

• Chandler Regional Medical Center, Chandler, Ariz.

The Practice Greenhealth Environmental Excellence Awards were presented in Cleveland, Ohio, June 5, 2014 at the CleanMed Conference & Exhibition, the premier national environmental conference for leaders in health care sustainability.

Practice Greenhealth is the nation’s leading health care community that empowers its members to increase their efficiencies and environmental stewardship while improving patient safety and care through tools, best practices and knowledge.

About Dignity Health

Dignity Health, one of the nation’s five largest health systems, is a 20-state network of nearly 9,000 physicians, 55,000 employees, and more than 380 care centers, including hospitals, urgent and occupational care, imaging centers, home health, and primary care clinics. Headquartered in San Francisco, Dignity Health is dedicated to providing compassionate, high-quality and affordable patient-centered care with special attention to the poor and underserved.  In 2013, Dignity Health provided nearly $1.7 billion in charitable care and services. For more information, please visit our website at www.dignityhealth.org. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Dignity Health

Dignity Health

Dignity Health, one of the nation’s five largest health systems, is a 20-state network of nearly 9,000 physicians, 55,000 employees, and more than 380 care centers, including hospitals, urgent and occupational care, imaging centers, home health, and primary care clinics. Headquartered in San Francisco, Dignity Health is dedicated to providing compassionate, high-quality and affordable patient-centered care with special attention to the poor and underserved. In 2013, Dignity Health provided nearly $1.7 billion in charitable care and services. For more information, please visit our website at www.dignityhealth.org. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

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