Stryker Sustainability Solutions Supports Practice Greenhealth's 'Greening the Supply Chain' Initiative

Stryker Sustainability Solutions, a leader in delivering smart healthcare resource solutions, announced today it is sponsoring Practice Greenhealths new Greening the Supply Chain initiative. The Initiative engages businesses in meeting the emerging demand for more environmentally preferable purchasing (EPP) practices for products within healthcare facilities, GPOs and in the marketplace. Stryker Sustainability Solutions, formerly Ascent, joins group purchasing organizations and top-performing hospitals throughout the country to support Greening the Supply Chain.

The Greening the Supply Chain Initiative aims to provide a set of common tools for purchasers, suppliers and manufacturers to ensure environmentally preferable products are available, cost-competitive and in demand as the industry invariably shifts toward more environmentally and fiscally responsible purchasing systems.

"In order to create an efficient healthcare supply chain, key systemic changes are needed to help hospitals understand how to better manage financial and environmental resources," says Lars Thording, Stryker Sustainability Solutions senior director of marketing and public affairs. "Were honored to join leading hospital systems in support of Practice Greenhealths initiative to show providers it is easy to implement supply chain practices that reduce waste without requiring any significant investment."

Stryker Sustainability Solutions has helped thousands of hospitals reduce their environmental footprint through reprocessing and remanufacturing medical devices that are marketed in North America as "single use" by the original manufacturers and are often needlessly thrown away. Strykers reprocessing programs help its hospital partners save hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Reprocessing single-use medical devices allows hospitals to re-allocate their scarce resources to enhancing patient care through investments such as hiring more nurses or the purchase of much-needed equipment.

Stryker Sustainability Solutions was also a first mover on new industry supply chain standards such as the GS1 system and has partnered with hospital systems to help improve the safety and efficiency of care with enhanced traceability and reduced error rates.

"Stryker Sustainability Solutions is a strong partner because of their work to advance awareness of how supply chain efficiency is critical to achieving real change for the challenges facing healthcare," says Bob Jarboe, executive vice president of business development for Practice Greenhealth. "Giving hospitals a stronger framework for addressing fiscal and environmental sustainability concerns will help the healthcare industry make smarter purchasing decisions that stand to benefit us all."

Practice Greenhealth is a nonprofit membership organization founded on the principles of positive environmental stewardship and best practices by organizations in the healthcare community. For more information on Practice Greenhealths "Greening the Supply Chain initiative, visitpracticegreenhealth.org.

For more information about Stryker Sustainability Solutions commitment to the smart, efficient delivery of healthcare, visit sustainability.stryker.com or the blog, Protect Our Savings.