STONY BROOK, NY, November 10, 2022 – Stony Brook College Hospital (SBUH) has been acknowledged by the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers (HHS) on the 2022 United Nations Local weather Change Convention (COP27) for pledging ongoing motion to decarbonize the well being care sector and make well being care amenities extra resilient to the consequences of local weather change. SBUH has formally dedicated to pursuing the White Home’s local weather objective of lowering emissions by 50 % by 2030 and attaining internet zero emissions by 2050 and has already begun:
“I’m delighted that Stony Brook College Hospital has signed on to the White Home/HHS Well being Sector Local weather Pledge as we proceed to be acknowledged regionally and nationally as a pacesetter in sustainability efforts,” stated Hal Paz, MD, Government Vice President for Well being Sciences, Stony Brook College and Chief Government Officer, Stony Brook College Medication. “We stay targeted on these initiatives and accelerating the well being system’s progress towards a climate-conscious method to care.”
“At Stony Brook College Hospital, we have now made it our mission to assist sustainable healthcare initiatives and scale back our carbon footprint,” says Carol Gomes, MS, FACHE, CPHQ, CEO of Stony Brook College Hospital. “We look ahead to working with the Division of Well being and Human Providers to proceed to make environmental modifications that profit not solely our planet, but in addition our sufferers, workers and communities for years to return.”
A September 2021 consensus assertion from greater than 200 medical journals named local weather change the primary menace to world public well being. It exposes thousands and thousands of individuals in the US to hurt yearly—with disproportionate impacts on traditionally deprived communities—via will increase in excessive warmth waves, wildfires, flooding, vector-borne illnesses and different elements that worsen continual well being circumstances. The healthcare sector additionally contributes to local weather change, accounting for roughly 8.5 % of U.S. home emissions.
The HHS Workplace of Local weather Change and Well being Fairness (OCCHE), a part of the Workplace of the Assistant Secretary for Well being, developed the White Home/HHS Well being Sector Local weather Pledge to assist focus trade response to local weather challenges. Along with lowering their carbon footprint, signatories additionally decide to producing detailed plans to organize their amenities for each continual and acute catastrophic local weather impacts.
100 and two outstanding well being corporations within the U.S. have signed the White Home/HHS Well being Sector Local weather Pledge, together with organizations representing 837 hospitals in addition to main well being facilities, suppliers, insurance coverage corporations, group buying organizations, pharmaceutical corporations, and extra. Federal methods just like the Indian Well being Service (IHS), Veterans Well being Administration (VHA), and Army Well being System (MHS) are working collectively to satisfy comparable objectives to these the personal sector organizations have embraced. Mixed, over 1,080 federal and personal sector hospitals have made such commitments, representing over 15 % of U.S. hospitals.
“HHS returns this yr to COP27 to report nice progress,” stated Admiral Rachel Levine, Assistant Secretary for Well being for the Division of Well being and Human Providers. “Via the efforts of the Workplace of Local weather Change and Well being Fairness and several other different HHS businesses, we have now made important strides in introducing sources and assist to assist communities and care suppliers speed up their work to scale back dangerous emissions and enhance local weather resilience within the well being sector.”
This yr, SBUH was additionally named among the many Prime 25 within the nation for Environmental Excellence, which is the best honor awarded by Observe Greenhealth. The hospital was beforehand honored for Environmental Excellence in 2021 and offered with the Prime 25 award in 2020.
For extra details about how Stony Brook College Hospital is responding to our nation’s local weather challenges, go to stonybrookmedicine.edu/sustainability.
About Stony Brook College Hospital:
Stony Brook College Hospital (SBUH) is Lengthy Island’s premier tutorial well being middle. With 624 beds, SBUH serves because the area’s solely tertiary care middle and Regional Trauma Middle, and is dwelling to the Stony Brook College Coronary heart Institute, Stony Brook College Most cancers Middle, Stony Brook Kids’s Hospital and Stony Brook College Neurosciences Institute. SBUH additionally encompasses Suffolk County’s solely Degree 4 Regional Perinatal Middle, state-designated AIDS Middle, state-designated Complete Psychiatric Emergency Program, state-designated Burn Middle, the Christopher Pendergast ALS Middle of Excellence, and Kidney Transplant Middle. It’s dwelling of the nation’s first Pediatric A number of Sclerosis Middle. To be taught extra, go to www.stonybrookmedicine.edu/sbuh.
Concerning the Workplace of Local weather Change and Well being Fairness:
The Workplace of Local weather Change and Well being Fairness (OCCHE) performs an important position in defending the nation’s well being from local weather change-related dangers, together with excessive warmth, pure disasters, vector-borne illnesses and extra. Among the many helps OCCHE gives for well being sector corporations that want to scale back their environmental influence and turn into extra resilient to the consequences of local weather change are a webinar sequence and related compendium of federal sources to assist emissions discount and resilience. OCCHE additionally publishes a daily Local weather and Well being Outlook, an effort to tell well being professionals and the general public on how our well being could also be affected within the coming month(s) by local weather occasions and supply sources to take proactive motion.
