In high-income countries, the carbon footprint of health-care systems has been estimated to be 3–10% of the total national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions1. A recent report revealed that the NHS produces 5.4% of the UK’s GHG emissions. This represents 25% of total public sector emissions, equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions of 11 coal-fired power stations, which is not much lower than those for aviation, agriculture, forestry and land use in the UK (each 6,5%). Hospitals are the major GHG contributor in healthcare, with more than 50%, which is increased by other indirect factors such as patient and healthcare worker transport. In turn, the largest GHG contributor in hospitals is energy consumed by HVAC systems (i.e. heating, ventilation and air conditioning) amounting 57% according to some studies2. It is well known that these heavyweight infrastructures are poorly managed in hospitals, resulting in a chronic squandering of energy3.
Surgical blocks are the most energy demanding unit in a hospital, consuming around 20-40% of the total energy expenditure4. Strict temperature, air pressure and humidity control are required in these units to contain microbial contamination, which results in significant energy expenditure for the hospital, and any opportunity for optimising energy consumption is crucial. A demonstrator enabled as part of the OR4.0 project in one of the surgical blocks of the Vall d’Hebron hospital showed how using real-time patient location information, it was possible to render individualised in-time climate conditions for several operating rooms, concurrently.
New patient flow enabled GREEN ENERGY surgical solution
The achieved results are stunning revealing energy savings in the surgery unit up to 30%, more than 2000MWh year, and an expenditure reduction of 150.000 euros, or that is to say, 8.000 euros/operating room.
Beyond focusing most of the time to improve surgical performance and help on reducing waiting lists, this setup shows how the smart solutions designed by MYSPHERA can transform hospitals into high energy efficient organisations. According to our estimations, the mass implementation of an innovation like our GREEN OR4.0 would lead to a reduction of hospitals carbon footprint about 5-10%5. MYSPHERA is committed to help healthcare organisations to achieve the goals set by the European Green Deal6.
[1] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(19)30192-5/fulltext
[2] Chirarattananon, S. et al; Assessment of energy savings from the revised building energy code of Thailand. Energy 2010
[3] Teke et al; Assessing the energy efficiency improvement potentials of HVAC systems considering economic and environmental aspects at the hospitals; Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 2014
[4] Schoenmakers, I., Zeiler, W., & Boxem, G. (2016). KPI’s energy consumption of isolation rooms in hospitals. 110. REHVA World Congress (CLIMA 2016), May 22-25, 2016, Aalborg, Denmark
[5] https://www.worldometers.info/co2-emissions/spain-co2-emissions/ Counting an average 5% GHG contribution from healthcare per country, of which 50% correspond to hospitals; SP is 9,2%, GE is 5,3%
[6] https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/european-green-deal-communication_en.pdf
