Banner Gateway Medical Center earns “green” recognition for Operating Rooms

GILBERT, Ariz., (April 19, 2010) – Banner Gateway Medical Center was recently awarded the Ascent Healthy Hospital Award for outstanding performance in reducing environmental harm and improving overall hospital quality through medical device remanufacturing and reprocessing.

In 2009, participation in this program reduced the hospital’s supply costs by $251,386 and reduced medical waste by 9,164 lbs. These are important savings that are now available to reinvest in key patient care initiatives.

“We live in an era of environmental responsibility,” explains Penny Boone, RN, MSN-L, Director, Perioperative Services at Banner Gateway. “The reprocessing and remanufacturing of single-use devices in operating rooms significantly reduces the amount of medical waste in our environment.”

Hospitals and hospital networks across the nation are eagerly pursuing initiatives to reduce environmental harm, including the reprocessing and remanufacturing of delicate and often costly devices marketed as single-use by the original manufacturer and often needlessly thrown away.

It stands out as an environmental practice that not only radically reduces the amount of medical waste, but at the same time frees significant resources for the hospital – and these results are achieved immediately and with no capital investment. In the healthcare industry, reprocessing and remanufacturing have been hailed as breakthrough programs that uniquely realize the simultaneous demands for better resource utilization and more green practices.

About Banner Gateway
Banner Gateway Medical Center has 176 all-private rooms, nine operating suites and a 37-bed Emergency department. All 79 medical/surgical beds are equipped with iCare technology. In addition, the hospital’s 24 Intensive Care beds are monitored via similar technology that provides remote monitoring by intensive care physicians and nurses.

About Banner Health
Banner Health is one of the largest, nonprofit health care systems in the country. The system owns or manages 22 acute-care hospitals, long-term care centers and an array of other services including family clinics, home care services, a nursing registry and home medical equipment services in seven states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming.  To learn more about Banner Health, go to www.bannerhealth.com.

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