How Seattle Children's is reducing anesthesia-related emissions

Thursday, October 26th, 2023 | 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CT

Seattle Children's Hospital is leading the way in limiting the waste of harmful anesthetic gases that contribute to global warming.

The hospital's sustainability team is managing emissions in near real-time using EHR data collected from their anesthesia-gas machines. Thanks to these data-driven efforts, the hospital was able to reduce anesthesia-related emissions by 87 percent — or 500,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide per year — without any negative impact on patient outcomes. Additionally, these improvements have resulted in annual cost savings of over $175,000 in reduced anesthesia costs.

With increasing pressure (and financial incentives) from regulators like the Joint Commission and payors such as Medicaid, Seattle Children's is taking the lead by committing to become net zero by 2025.

This webinar will outline how Seattle Children's rolled out the initiative, which ultimately spurred a national quality improvement project to reduce anesthesia-related greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent at participating hospitals.

In this webinar, you'll learn:

The environmental impact of anesthesia
How Seattle Children's used real-world data to reduce anesthesia-related climate emissions
How hospitals nationwide are following suit

Presenters:

Rowland Illing, MD

Chief Medical Officer, International Public Sector Health, AWS

Elizabeth (Liz) Hansen, MD, PhD

Founder of Project SPRUCE Forest, assistant professor at University of Washington, pediatric anesthesiologist at Seattle Children’s Hospital

Dan Low, MD

CMO, AdaptX; Associate Professor at University of Washington; Pediatric Anesthesiologist at Seattle Children's Hospital