BLog #6

Colby Veirs

SOC 202

Sills

Blog #6

Greener Medical Products

            Health systems from hospitals, health care, and pharmacies are organizing the industries vast purchasing powers to push the makers of the medical products to create the medicine with safer chemicals and so they can be more environmentally friendly when it comes to the health and safety of the patients taking them and the medical treatments using them. There are lots of areas in the world that could use the extra unneeded pills instead of them just sitting on shelves going to waste. There are 5 huge health care groups that buy 130 billion of these products every year. The main problem that the groups want to solve is to have the safest clean and harmless ways while working with the patients that need them. That extra money in the end will ultimately help out a lot in the end with sanitary environments. The medical things the hospital groups buy really matters and sends a signal to the industry that al the products should be completely non toxic and recyclable. One group called Kaiser Permanente changed all their tools from one to the other so they were more sterile and would not affect anything in an invasive surgery. They also renovated their floors by replacing the old vinyl ones with rubber so theirs no chance they cant release any harmful chemicals. It is very important they took all of these precautions creating an all around safer environment for the workers and patients. They have also placed regulations on these changes to keep everything in line and to not fall off track with keeping up a safe health environment. Overall the leverage they had on getting these new products for a good price made a big clean change in the health industry.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/hospitals-health-groups-use-purchasing-power-to-push-for-greener-medical-products/2011/10/12/gIQAaDWPgL_story.html