Our expertise:
Innovations in Health Care Waste Minimization
Design and Implementation of Hospital Waste Management System
Identification and initiation of Pollution Prevention
Compliance regulations for worker health and safety, waste management, and protecting patient confidentiality
Among our clients:
Hospitals, health systems, hospital associations, buying groups, health care and supply of goods, government regulatory agencies, international aid agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private companies waste management.
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Save Money, Save Time, Save Space
Increase Worker Safety, Increase regulatory compliance
Reduce Risk, Reduce Impact on Your Community
Our mission
To increase the capacity of our clients to operate in a way that provides a safe workplace, contain costs, and minimizes the environmental impact of operations on communities.
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Over the last decade we have received hundreds of questions and inquiries from health care facility managers, nurses and other professionals in hospitals across the country, as well as from professionals in a number of other countries. The most frequently repeated question is:
How do I get a recycling or waste reduction program started?
How do I get administrative support for a program?
How do I take my waste management and disposal costs?
What do I do now that we shut down our incinerator?
How do we separate and manage all of the small amounts of hazardous wastes?
The question came out against the three “not be” repeated by nearly every environmental services manager we used to when confronted with having to meet the waste:
NO TIME, NO Space, NO MONEY
We run dozens of workshops and training programs throughout the county reaching thousands of participants who are trying to answer questions. This is an interactive process in which we learned at least as much as we are taught. There are now some wonderful examples of waste minimization efforts in hospitals across the country that provide examples of how some of these questions are answered and how the three “nos” has been addressed. Ultimately there will be many different approaches as there are hospitals, each unique suited to its environment.
The two guides we published in the American Society of Healthcare Services division of American Hospital Association,
An ounce of Prevention: Waste reduction Strategies for Health Care Facilities
Guidebook for Hospital Waste reduction of Program Planning and Implementation
and the training videos produced by Fanlight Productions, No Time To waste, details many examples.
Our approach to working with our clients not only draws on our expertise, but the wealth of knowledge and actual experience in programs and policies in force in health care facilities worldwide. Our goal in serving you is to put that knowledge base at your service to design and implement the best program to meet your goals.
The health care field is changing rapidly, with mergers, downsizing, and ongoing rehabilitation. The field of waste management has also changed rapidly in its own range of mergers, limiting service options. The addition of new federal and state regulations are limited conventional treatment options such as waste incineration, forcing most facilities to find new options for dealing responsibly with their wastes. Responding to new developments is an ongoing challenge for all health care field. Managers are responsible for waste in health care facilities are seeing waste as either a higher burden or development opportunities for their organization. Opportunity is to create waste management system that can extract costs, increase worker safety, and come in compliance with existing and future regulations and standards. Challenge is to do it within the rules and multiple regulations currently in place, and in an environment where waste management is still viewed as a relatively inconsequential part of the organizational structure (up to a hit crisis).
Most hospital waste management system will still exist in a system governed by deferred maintenance, with corporate governance rules being, “if it is not broke, do not fix it.” Weekly we hear from managers who were in or just inherited such system finally broken. As we all know, fixing a system in crisis is usually not lead to lasting solutions. If this is your goal to get beyond crisis management to waste and be prompt, then CGH is ready to provide you with resources, guidance and assurances that you will need to meet the critical area.
The CGH offers a comprehensive approach to integrated waste management. While it is useful to separate different waste flows (eg, Regulated medical waste, solid waste, hazardous wastes, recyclable wastes), it is necessary to see all of the wastes as a whole to create the best long term strategy and reap the best benefits from any action to take. The focus of this strategy is to ensure regulatory compliance and safety of workers, while decreasing costs. The technique is to reduce the amount of waste as hazardous wastes through source reduction and conscientious separation. This will increase the volume of the more hazardous types of waste (eg, reduce the RMW and increase solid waste). Worker safety is less compromised, and the opportunity to further exclude wastes for recycling and composting will continue to reduce costs, and meet other secondary purposes (eg, a hospital environment policy or positive relationship public).
About CGH
Waste reduction expert for Health Care Management Industry and System Design, Prevention of pollution, Training and Educational Services
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The CGH Strategies, Inc. is working with major institutions, businesses and government agencies throughout the United States since 1991 to design and implement waste reduction initiatives and avoidance of pollution and policies. In collaboration with public agencies, private institutions and the packaging and supply industry, CGH has helped to promote the program of ground-breaking and significant reduction of waste and the costs associated with waste management, with particular focus on the sectors of health care.
In instituting the first integrated waste reduction programs in hospitals and health care facilities, CGH has become recognized as a leading authority in the country on the issue of waste in health care facilities. This work has also been recognized internationally and utilized in other countries, including India, Spain, Argentina, and Australia.
The CGH brings a unique set of skills and experience in this work. Our expertise is supplemented by a network of associates, to bring the best and latest expertise in hospital waste and pollution prevention issues, as well as design and implementation of management programs and education to health care facilities. Are associated with all active professionals in their chosen field of expertise which include nursing and nurse management, infection control, hazardous waste management, ergonomics, institutional solid waste and recycling management, operations nutrition services, the design of facilities for optimum waste management, indoor air quality, protecting the confidentiality of patient and worker safety.
This integration of carefully chosen people resources to CGH may provide flexibility in assembling the best team possible to meet the needs of the client, whether in educational programming, product research, auditing of waste or design of the system.
CGH strongly believe that organizations can build their own capacity to solve problems and maintain the dynamic program to meet the issues of environmental and worker safety. ยน CGH role is to assist clients in building capacity while simultaneously solving the immediate problem. CGH has also worked with organizations to develop training programs for staff, structure of the strategic planning process, or conduct research to identify problems and solutions within an organization or a community. CGH has also worked to help solve problems and communications between organizations and communities in which they are based.