Sustainability healthcare

The future image of the industry and society s respect for it will hinge upon a clear demonstration of its belief in and stewardship of the principles of Green Chemistry. Indeed, there is nothing more worthy than our desire to improve our ability to meet healthcare needs for the betterment of everyone through sustainable practices. 

Conservation and sustainable use are inseparable within the CBD and the treaty acknowledges the important role of traditional knowledge to communities and within the global healthcare system. However, the provisions are very general they do not establish standards and they leave it to individual states to develop mechanisms for implementation and for the exercise of rights over their... 

A critical factor in the successful development of a sustainable validation capability is knowledge retention. Many pharmaceutical and healthcare companies are highly dependent on contract... 

C. Gable, Do No Harm Greening the Healthcare Industry, Sustainable Industries Journal, August 2004. 

Sustainable management of medicinal plant resources is important, not only because of their value as a potential source of new drugs, but also due to the reliance on traditional medicinal plants for health. The vast majority (70-80%) of the population in developing countries still rely on traditional medicinal practitioners (TMPs) for healthcare (Farnsworth et al., 1985). 

Compliance is a big problem in medical care. Most patients do not like to take medications or fail to take than as instructed. Drags with sustained release can remedy some of these problems. Once daily dosage with sustained action is likely to improve the compliance rate to 80% when compared with 40% for three or four times a day. Some of the novel delivery methods such as transdermal or buccal are preferred by most patients to oral intake or injections. Lack of compliance is responsible for a significant number of hospital admissions in the USA (as high as 10% in some estimates). Overall cost of noncompliance in the USA was more than 100 billion in 2006. Improvement of compliance can lead to significant reductions in healthcare costs. 

Nanotechnology is enabling new developments in material science, while providing innovations for industries such as construction, information and communications, healthcare, energy, transportation and security. The sustainable development of nanomaterials, including their potential for environmental protection and the appropriate assessment of possible risks, will contribute to sustainable economic growth. 

Healthcare providers (physicians, hospitals, clinics, etc.) operate and are sustained by the reimbursement or payment for care they provide to patients. In the United States, revenue for healthcare services comes from a variety of sources including the patient, insurance companies (i.e., Blue-Cross/BlueShield, Cigna, Aetna), and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), formerly the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). The CMS provides healthcare insurance for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. When interfacing with an insurance company or the CMS, there are three fundamental reimbursement concepts that must be considered to assure appropriate revenue for services provided. These include the concepts of coverage, coding, and payment. 

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