Environment certification

Capio S:t Göran gets environment certification

After one year of intense work we finally succeeded – Capio S:t Göran Hospital now has  environment certification. This means that our Environmental Management System, that is the structure of the environmental work of the hospital, has been approved by ISO standard 14001.

  • We are very satisfied with achieving the environment certification, says Eva Öhrn Project Manager of our Environment Management Project. We scored high in the certification process and received praise from the company performing the certification, SEMKO-DEKRA. The few remarks we did get during the audit were of lesser character and we have now had chance to correct them.

Requirement for the purchase

  • The Stockholm County Counsel was ahead of other counties concerning environmental work. One requirement that they have had on buyers has been to get environment certification before the end of year 2005, and we are of course happy to now have accomplished this, Eva states.
  • On the other hand, now is when actual work starts. The environment certification does not approve of the environmental work in itself but ascertains that our organisation has a certain structure that complies with the international standard ISO 14001. The great challenge is to keep up the work of minimizing environmental impact and to reach our environmental goals. This means, amongst other things, that we keep updated on legislation, and that we incorporate environmental thinking as a natural part of our organisation.

 Pharmaceuticals large environmental impact

  • At a hospital it is foremost pharmaceuticals that have a negative environmental impact. It is partly how to handle residue of medicine and not to discard medicine unnecessarily and partly the way doctors prescribe medicine. One way to decrease environmental impact is for doctors to prescribe smaller packages in an early stage so that the patient can try how the medicine works. In this way we decrease the risk of unnecessary environmental impact.

 Recycling and sorting out waste products

  • The second area with large environmental impact is the waste products of the hospital. We have to take care of it in a good way, and it is important to recycle and to handle hazardous waste in a proper way. We have increased the number of source fractions, that is the different sorts of materials that you can recycle. This enables us to better and more recycling, Eva continues.

 Printing paper, laundry, transports and disposable and consumption material

  • Paper, laundry and transports are other important areas for further improvement in the environmental aspect. I am now working with a transport investigation studying all transports to and from the hospital. The question is how we can decrease the number of transports and what we can requirements we can pose on our carriers.
  • Disposable and consumption material is another area we are looking into. A group is reviewing our routines for ordering materials and investigating whether coordination of deliveries could decrease the number of transports to the hospital.

Environmental Communicators in all departments

Every department has at least on Environmental Communicator, Eva continues:

  • They make up a group of 40 in total, and they have actively committed themselves to the environmental issues during this past year. We have gone on educational visits to learn more about different areas. Amongst others we have visited a public cleansing department, the Rimbo laundry service and the people who handle our hazardous waste. It is important to understand the whole line of production and to see the actual effects of the hospitals activities. These visits have been highly appreciated and has created an understanding of why we need to work with environmental issues, says Eva.

FACTS on ISO 14001 – Environment Certification:

Environmental Management according to ISO 14001 is based on a preventive and anticipating way of working with environmental issues. On the long term this leads to lower costs for the company, through well planned environmental investments, decreased waste products, better control of use of raw material and not least decreased risk of environmental accidents.