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Towards a Sustainable Health Care System: A Greener Approach to Surgical Care


Join us and register for Ontario Health’s next Quality Rounds Ontario session: “Towards a Sustainable Health Care System: A Greener Approach to Surgical Care.” 

Canada’s health care system contributes nearly 5% of the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions, surpassing the aviation industry. Operating rooms, among the most energy-intensive hospital areas, offer major opportunities for emissions reduction, particularly by eliminating high-impact anesthetic gases like desflurane. A study found that using desflurane for seven hours equates to driving 1,920 km, compared to just 40 km with sevoflurane.  

This session will provide an overview of Ontario Health’s “Cut the Carbon: Reducing Surgical Waste” campaign and explore the critical intersection of health care sustainability and quality improvement, showcasing strategies to minimize surgical waste while enhancing patient-centred care.

Speakers:

  • Dr. Timothy Jackson, Ontario Surgical Quality Improvement Network (ONSQIN) Clinical Lead

  • Dr. David Smith, General Surgeon, North York General Hospital

 

Moderated by:

  • Dr. David Kaplan, Vice-President, Quality, Ontario Health

 

At the conclusion of this learning activity, participants will:  

  • Better understand the compelling case for a greener operating room, emphasizing sustainability’s role in improving outcomes and reducing health care’s environmental footprint

  • Know about innovative initiatives and results from the “Cut the Carbon: Reducing Surgical Waste” campaign and how their organization can adopt similar practices

  • Be familiar with organizations such as Creating a Sustainable Canadian Health System in a Climate Crisis (CASCADES) and Partners for Environmental Action by Communities within Healthcare systems (PEACH), which have developed toolkits and getting-started guides for hospitals

  • Be able to apply actionable steps toward fostering sustainable care in their day-to-day work, from reducing anesthetic gas usage to promoting reusables and waste audits

 

This one-credit-per-hour Group Learning program has been certified by the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Ontario Chapter for up to 1.0 Mainpro+ credits:   

“‘Towards a Sustainable Health Care System: A Greener Approach to Surgical Care’ is a self-approved group learning activity (Section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.” 

Attendance at this program entitles certified Canadian College of Health Leaders members (CHE/Fellow) to 0.5 Category II credits toward their maintenance-of-certification requirement.   




Register here

 

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