Practice Greenhealth recently announced the development of a new tool that will provide health care facilities with a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for medical devices and services. The project is part of Practice Greenhealth’s Greening the Supply Chain Initiative and will be complete sometime in 2014.
The purpose of the tool is to help healthcare professionals determine the true and total cost of various medical devices and services. Often costs can be submerged and unidentified at the time of purchase. The TCO Project will look at these submerged costs, including “maintenance costs, such as the cost of energy, and end of life costs, such as the expense of waste disposal”.
Reducing energy and waste costs, as well as other environmental costs, could work to reduce the overall operational costs while at the same time minimizing the environmental impact. If these costs were looked at before purchasing, it could have a significant impact on a healthcare facility’s total cost.
According to Practice Greenhealth, the following are ways that considering TCO will benefit healthcare facilities:
Addressing and reducing the costs of providing quality health care
Increasing product and service efficiencies to ensure products are not wasted (disposed)
Minimizing the environmental footprint of health care through purchasing efficiencies
Reducing the use of resources, such as energy and water; reducing the amount of waste disposed and associated costs; and using safer chemicals to reduce potential impacts to patients and staff
The TCO project has a number of companies participating in its development including Johnson & Johnson, Ecolab, Philips, Stericyle, and 3M. In addition to these companies, the TCO steering committee also receives input from healthcare systems, hospitals, and GPOs.
To learn more about the project, click here. The team at EES is also available to assist healthcare facilities with any environmental compliance and energy management projects. For our help, contact us here.