University of Melbourne Hospital Sustainability Toolkit

University of Melbourne Hospital Sustainability Toolkit

The University of Melbourne (UniMelb) team, with support from the Climate CATCH Lab, have developed an integrated package known as the “University of Melbourne Hospital Sustainability Toolkit” (The Toolkit) (Figure 1) that provides a framework to increase staff engagement with healthcare sustainability initiatives and build an organisation’s capacity to promote, implement, and evaluate local high value care and sustainability interventions.

Figure 1. The University of Melbourne Hospital Sustainability Toolkit

The Toolkit is made up of four complementary components to increase staff engagement with healthcare sustainability, and build an organisation's capacity to promote, implement, and evaluate local sustainability interventions. The Toolkit includes 4 components:

• Health Service Environmental Sustainability Competition resources and implementation support for staff-led sustainability projects.

• Sustainability in Quality Improvement (SusQI) training: equipping staff with skills to implement projects delivering environmental and financial savings while maintaining care quality.

• Hospital Sustainability Project Tracker: an interactive dashboard with suggested interventions, measurement, and reporting tools.

• Education resources: integration of education materials on climate change and healthcare sustainability into clinical curricula.

Health Service Environmental Sustainability Competition 

Inspired by the international success of ‘Green Team Competitions’ supported by the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare (UK), this UniMelb facilitated initiative supports, motivates, and coordinates sustainability in quality improvement initiatives across participating health services. The University of Melbourne was shortlisted for a Victorian Public Healthcare Award for supporting coordination of the Parkville Precinct Hospital Sustainability Competition over the past 3 years resulting in 44 projects achieving cumulative savings of 2.6 million kg CO₂e, $2.1 million, 4.7 tonnes of waste, and avoiding 810,000 single-use items.

Healthcare staff are invited to register intent to conduct sustainability in quality improvement projects via the Project Entry Registration Form. Registered project teams are supported with resources and training through the UniMelb Sustainability in Quality Improvement (SusQI) workshop. Upon completion, project teams submit a report on clinical, social, environmental and financial outcomes and experiences via the Competition Project Report Form. Completed projects are celebrated in a showcase event and may be profiled online.

Sustainability in Quality Improvement (SusQI) training

The University of Melbourne has been recognised as a Beacon Site by the UK Centre for Sustainable Healthcare for delivering Sustainability in Quality Improvement (SusQI) training to clinical and non-clinical staff interested in environmentally, clinically, socially, and financially sustainable healthcare.Using the open access SusQI project resources and a framework that is an evolution of the IHI Model for Improvement Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycle, participants learn about the link between healthcare, the environment, and ways to implement change in their workplace integrating environmental sustainability principles and techniques into established quality improvement and clinical practice. UniMelb’s support for the competition and delivery of SusQI training has equipped healthcare staff with the tools and knowledge necessary to implement innovative solutions that reduce unnecessary testing, low-quality care, carbon emissions, and waste. Evaluation of these workshops piloted over the past 3 years has demonstrated very high levels of improvement in participant knowledge, motivation and confidence to lead sustainability projects with 100% of participants reporting they would recommend the workshop to a colleague.

Hospital Sustainability Project Tracker (Project Tracker) 

Developed by Doctors for the Environment Australia and aligned to the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare’s (ACSQHC) Environmental Sustainability and Climate Resilience pilot module, the open access Project Tracker is a simple Excel tool hosted on a health service’s Microsoft SharePoint. It provides example project ideas tailored to major clinical areas and a framework for identifying, selecting and tracking initiatives. Designed for use by a Health Service Environmental Sustainability Committee without a requirement for formal training as the tracker includes in built instructions for use. Hospital teams can monitor carbon, waste, clinical, social and financial outcomes, making benefits visible at local and organisational levels. It has been positively received by hospitals participating in the ACSQHC module pilot for its practicality and guidance.

Educational resources

Designed to support compliance with new planetary health training standards Doctors for the Environment Australia has developed open access climate-health and sustainable healthcare education materials suitable for all clinical disciplines to integrate value-based, patient-centred, low-carbon care into the health service training curricula. Implementation guidance is provided from the UniMelb team to enable local adaptation; delivery models vary across services and professions, and the resources are designed to fit most contexts. Successful integration into the Royal Melbourne Hospital medical education curriculum demonstrated significant improvements in junior doctors’ understanding of climate-health and sustainable healthcare providing a model for broader adoption across other health services.

Evaluation and Research