Sustainability for Healthcare Management: A Leadership Imperative

Sustainability is not unique to health, but is a unique vehicle for promoting healthy values. This book challenges healthcare leaders to think through the implications of our decisions from fiscal, societal and environmental perspectives. It links health values with sustainability drivers in order to enlighten leadership about the value of sustainability as we move toward a new paradigm of health. The authors explore leadership priorities and link them to sustainability, through an imaginary health leader, Fred, the Chief Executive Offi cer (CEO) of Memorial Hospital, a community hospital based in the United States. Each chapter frames a leadership priority and accompanying sustainability driver through a storyline that involves the main character, Fred, and his colleagues.

Practical applications featuring evidence-based sustainability accomplishments and the coordinating refl ections of renowned healthcare leaders are woven throughout the book. Every chapter includes leadership tools, illustrations and tables with tips and data to make an evidence-based case in support of health sustainability. Practical applications enhance each chapter by providing real examples of sustainability accomplishments and reflections from healthcare leaders bring such examples to life. The book includes a healthcare sustainability syllabus as well as suggested reading and teaching resources.

By bringing together the key concepts of environmentally sustainable healthcare operations, this book is a unique resource to researchers, students and professionals working in health and healthcare management. Readers will also gain an appreciation for translating leadership priorities into sustainability tactics with beneficial operational outcomes.

Carrie R. Rich serves as the Senior Director of Vision Translation at Inova Health System. She developed and teaches a Healthcare Sustainability curriculum for higher education, piloted as an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University. She is also CEO of The Global Good Fund, a foundation dedicated to developing young high potential leaders.

J. Knox Singleton is CEO of Inova Health System, one of the nation’s most integrated and most wired healthcare delivery systems and one of the largest in the metropolitan Washington region. He is a director and officer of a variety of community organizations that address issues such as affordable housing and human services.

Seema S. Wadhwa created and oversees the Sustainability Department at Urban Ltd. where she leads the healthcare industry in pursuing enhanced environmental practices that align with business imperatives. Current projects include Director of Sustainability for Inova Health System and Director of the Healthier Hospitals Initiative, a national initiative of more than 500 hospitals with more than $20 billion in purchasing power working to align with a more sustainable business model.