Making the OR More Sustainable

Periop Briefing interviewed Lisa Ravinal, BSN, RN, CNOR, staff nurse level III at Boston Children's Hospital in Waltham, Massachusetts, about a pilot program to improve sustainability in the OR.What was the catalyst for this project?I transferred to the Waltham Ambulatory Satellite Center in 2013 after working at the main campus for decades.Upon transferring, I realized the Waltham OR had no formal process for recycling.There was a system for recycling across the satellite, but not in the OR. How did you approach creating and implementing a solution?My first action to correct this situation was to reach out to our Environmental Services Department (ESD) and ask them to supply the OR with green recycling bins.We initiated a collaborative recycling program between the ESD and perioperative team.We educated both OR and ESD team members on which items could be recycled (eg, paper, cardboard, and hard plastic materials).We collaborated with companies who had sustainability and "give back" programs.We collected tourniquets, oxygen saturation probes, hover mats, and sequential compression device sleeves for the companies to utilize in their reprocessing and repurposing of medical devices program.