Bon Secours Health System Recognized for Environmentally Responsible Efforts
All of Bon Secours Health System’s local systems were honored with Environmental Excellence Awards from Practice Greenhealth, a national membership organization for health care facilities committed to environmentally responsible operations.
“Improving environmental performance is not an option for Bon Secours Health System and its facilities. It’s an absolute necessity for a sustainable future,” said Rich Statuto, president and CEO of Bon Secours Health System. “We want to bring healing and respect not only to our patients, but to our planet as well. The system is strongly committed to ecological stewardship (greening), and we are very pleased all local systems within Bon Secours Health System received awards.”
Bon Secours New York Health System, Bon Secours St. Francis Health System in South Carolina, Bon Secours Baltimore Health System and Bon Secours Virginia–Hampton Roads received Partner for Change Awards with Distinction. The award recognizes health care facilities that have achieved improvements in mercury elimination, waste reduction and pollution prevention programs. This includes at least 15 percent recycling, a more extensive sustainability program and leadership in the local community and/or health care sector.
In addition to the Partner for Change Award with Distinction, Bon Secours St. Francis Health System also received the Making Medicine Mercury-Free Award for virtually eliminating mercury from their facilities and demonstrating a commitment to continue to be mercury-free.
Bon Secours St. Petersburg in Florida, Bon Secours Virginia–Richmond, Bon Secours Kentucky Health System and Roper St. Francis Healthcare in South Carolina received Partner for Change Awards. The award recognizes health care facilities that continuously improve and expand upon their mercury elimination, waste reduction and pollution prevention programs.
Bon Secours Charity Health System in New York received the Partner Recognition Award, which recognizes health care facilities that have begun to work on environmental improvements and have less than a 10-percent recycling rate for the total waste stream.
The Practice Greenhealth Environmental Excellence Awards were presented today in Baltimore in conjunction with CleanMed 2010, a global conference for environmental leaders in health care. Bon Secours Health System Inc., based in Marriottsville, Md., is a $2.9 billion dollar no-tfor-profit Catholic health system that owns, manages or joint ventures 18 acute care, five long-term care, four assisted living, six retirement communities/senior housing, 14 home care and hospice services, and other facilities, primarily on the East Coast of the United States. Bon Secours Health System consists of more than 21,000 coworkers and more than 8,000 physicians providing Good HelpTM to people in seven states. Its vision is to be a prophetic Catholic health ministry partnering with communities to create a more humane world, build health and social justice and provide exceptional value for those served. For more information on Bon Secours Health System, Inc., visit www.bshsi.org.
Practice Greenhealth is the nation’s leading membership and networking organization for institutions in the health care community that have made a commitment to sustainable, ecofriendly practices. Members include hospitals, health care systems, businesses and other stakeholders engaged in the greening of health care to improve the health of patients, staff and the environment. Practice Greenhealth is a source of environmental solutions for the health care sector. For more information on Practice Greenhealth, healthy initiatives, current trends, news and views, and other links to earth-friendly organizations, visit www.practicegreenhealth.org.