Laura Wenger, RN of The Healthier Hospitals Initiative

The Healthier Hospitals Initiative (HHI) is a national campaign to implement a completely new approach to improving environmental health and sustainability in the health care sector.

Eleven of the largest, most influential U.S. health systems, comprising over 475 hospitals with more than $20 billion in purchasing power, worked with Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), the Center for Health Design and Practice Greenhealth to create HHI as a guide for hospitals to reduce energy and waste, choose safer and less toxic products, and purchase and serve healthier foods.

With these eleven sponsoring systems as anchors, the initiative will enroll at least 2,000 hospitals in 50 states and the District of Columbia over the next three years to implement sustainable operations, and will measure the impact on improved patient, worker and community health and reduced costs.

As a comprehensive, sector-wide initiative, HHI is fully consistent with and builds upon the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Triple Aim – Better Health, Better Care and Lower Costs, and will institute frameworks and implementation tools that can be used by every healthcare facility in the nation, for no charge.