LHSC Green Team News » Greening Health Care: LHSC’s Sustainability journey
Published: 2024-12-24 Author: Julia Capaldi
Transitioning to a fully electronic health record (EHR) system is not only a step forward in patient care but also a significant move toward environmental sustainability. At London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC), the connection between healthcare and planetary health is becoming increasingly clear, driving innovative changes across the organization.
This month, we spoke with Nerissa Taylor and Mike Apostol, two members of LHSC’s Green Team and Saira Syed, Manager of Health Information Management (HIM). Together, they are part of a team of staff championing practices that reduce the hospital’s environmental footprint, including LHSC’s first organization-wide environmental sustainability target: a 10 percent reduction in printing by March 31, 2025.
The challenge is no small feat. In 2023 alone, LHSC printed a staggering 28 million pages, costing over $800,000 annually and contributing to a significant use of environmental resources and impacts, including trees, water usage, CO2 emissions and waste. “Staff and patients have indicated that planetary health is something very important to them, which is why we formed the LHSC Green Team,” explains Mike Apostol, Energy Management Specialist and LHSC Green Team Leader. “We are seeing incredible progress from our various green Team working groups, including the printing reduction initiative.”
One standout success story comes from the HIM department, which is on track to achieve a 30 percent reduction in printing volumes. For Syed and her team, the goals were clear: reduce waste and streamline workflows.
“We identified areas we could make impactful changes,” says Syed. These included:
For the Release of Information (ROI) team:
- Updating the webpage and Form (used for requesting specific health information) to provide clear instructions for processing requests via paper or email and completing them through secure file transfer (SFT), mail, or in person.
- Transitioning most requests to electronic fulfillment using SFT, significantly reducing paper printing.
- Completing the majority of circle-of-care requests as eXchange Referrals (XRs) through the portal.
- Ordering additional scanners for ROI desks, enabling small charts to be scanned directly rather than printed and then scanned.
For University Hospital:
- Discontinuing the auto-printing of chart pull clinic lists, which previously generated 15–20 sheets daily, reducing it to a single sheet printed only when necessary.
The HIM team’s commitment doesn’t stop there. “Our future plans include collaborating with ITS to increase scanner capacity, allowing charts to be scanned directly and more efficiently,” says Syed. “We’re also working to redirect incoming transcription faxes to a designated email account, eliminating paper handling altogether.”
While some printing remains essential, Apostol emphasizes that protecting planetary health is a shared responsibility. The Green Team website offers actionable steps departments can take to minimize printing. These include:
- Reviewing printing practices as a team to ensure only necessary items are printed.
- Turning off auto-printing of clinical reports.
- Educating teams on digital alternatives like Microsoft Teams and OneDrive.
- Transitioning to eFax and converting forms to fillable PDFs or Microsoft Forms.
- Using 100 percent recycled paper for any essential printing
The LHSC Green Team has also created a PowerBI dashboard that allows departments to view their printing volumes by month and includes financial and environmental metrics. This allows each department to understand their trends and volumes in order to help identify opportunities and see progress with their printing reduction efforts.
For Nerissa Taylor, co-lead for the LHSC Green Team ITS Subcommittee, collaboration has been key to the Green Team’s success. “We’re thrilled to have established LHSC’s first environmental sustainability target,” she says. “Many departments have reached out for consultations on reducing printing. In just a few months, we’ve achieved an almost 3 percent reduction organization-wide, and we’re on track to meet our 10 percent goal by March 2025.”
Taylor credits teamwork and passion for these achievements. “Together, we’re making sustainable changes that add up to significant improvements for our hospital and community. Thanks to everyone at Team LHSC for their efforts!”
To learn more about the LHSC Green Team and their initiatives, email lhscgreenteam@lhsc.on.ca.
