An environmentally friendly change in eye surgery supplies at Kaiser Permanente Northern California has eliminated 300,000 plastic trays going to landfills over 2 years and reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 70,500 pounds.
The 3 plastic trays used to hold surgical tools during each of the 50,000 cataract surgeries a year are now gone. They have been replaced with plant-based trays, made from sugarcane pulp that simply biodegrade when thrown away.
“We’re trying to make eye surgeries more sustainable,” said Naveen Chandra, MD, an eye surgeon who has been bothered by the amount of waste generated during surgeries since he became a doctor 28 years ago. “The waste we generate is massive.”
Eliminating CO2 emissions
Use of the new trays also has eliminated carbon dioxide emissions produced in making plastic ones, said Dr. Chandra, who also is co-chair of the Kaiser Permanente National Products Council of Ophthalmology Sourcing and Standards Team.
Dr. Chandra was inspired by Surgical Supply Chain Director Nestor Jarquin, who offered him the option of using the new product. Jarquin said the plant-based solution he offered to Dr. Chandra “just clicked” for both of them.
“When it comes to our goals for contracts to buy supplies, we have to account for the environment with more sustainable options such as packaging material, or finding options for recycling or reusing,” said Jarquin. “Dr. Chandra took charge as a physician in the region to promote this change as a necessity for the betterment of the environment. He definitely has a passion around this.”
It took 2 years for the company providing the new plant-based trays to develop one that would not shed plant fibers that would contaminate surgical tools. And Dr. Chandra had to find a way to lower costs in the operating room to help pay for the higher priced trays.
“I looked at some of our uses in the operating room and found ways to help offset the investment in these new basins,” said Dr. Chandra. “That lowered costs somewhat, and Kaiser Permanente is willing to spend a little bit more money to do the right thing.”
Dr. Chandra said the operating room staff like the new basins because they are not as flimsy as the plastic ones. They don’t twist and spill when you pick them up.
He said he was happy to spend his own time over 2 years working with the vendor to build a better surgical tool basin and to find cost savings to pay for them.
“Cataract surgery is the highest volume surgery in the world, and the amount of stuff we put in the landfills is huge,” said Dr. Chandra. “It warms my heart to know we’ve already made a little dent in the waste we’ve been creating.”
