Eyeworld

16 | EYEWORLD | JULY 2023 ASCRS NEWS Contact McCabe: cmccabe13@hotmail.com sustainability and reduce waste. One example of this effect was seen when Kaiser Permanen- te changed from single-use to reusable sharps containers, avoiding 300 tons of plastic waste and saving more than $2.3 million annually. 4 A simple place to start is to evaluate surgical packs by monitoring what is not used and sub- sequently thrown out over a 2-week timeframe. Rarely used items such as extra syringes, mark- ing pens, or gauze pads can then be removed from the pack and made available as single-use peel packs for times they are needed. A study of surgical pack supplies was conducted over a 3-week period in a children's hospital. Items used less than 85% of the time were excluded from custom packs, eliminating 2 tons of plastic waste and saving more than $27,000 in pack costs annually. These efforts along with supply chain streamlining were projected to eliminate more than 6,000 tons of waste in the U.S. an- nually. 5 Similarly, a survey of 58 neurosurgical cases at the University of California San Francis- co showed an average of $968 per case or $2.9 million per year in surgical waste in the neuro- surgery department. 6 A task force made up of surgeons, nurses, scrub techs, and key staff that manage ordering of supplies can survey use and waste of items and make recommendations for change. Other ideas for waste reduction include eliminating full body drapes in favor of smaller drapes, eliminating gowns for patients, proper use of multidose perioperative drops until the expiration date, and recycling plastic and paper when possible. Guidelines for use of multidose drops on multiple patients can be found in the recently published multisociety position paper on reducing unnecessary topical drug waste in ASCs. 7 One simple step is to replace individual plastic bottles of water with a water cooler and paper cups in the postoperative setting. For more ideas and tools to calculate the impact of small changes on the waste produced and carbon footprint of your own OR, go to EyeSustain.org. You will find tools for making changes that can have a lasting impact on the environment, sustainability, and the financial health of your practice and the larger communi- ty as well. continued from page 14 The EyeSustain website (EyeSustain.org) offers a number of suggestions and resources, including the EyeSustain Facility Pledge: Educate surgeons and surgical staff about sustainability and the impact of OR waste. Regularly re-evaluate surgical pack standardization to minimize waste. Use multidose bottles of topical medication and betadine on multiple patients when possible. Assess the necessity for patient gowns and full body draping. Regularly reassess options for reusable versus single-use products and instrumentation. Assess feasibility of alcohol-based surgical scrub for pre-surgical antisepsis. Institute or update recycling strategies.

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