Webinar on collaborating to prevent massive nitrous oxide waste in medical gas systems

April 5, 2023

A Pacific Northwest Regional Webinar
Tuesday, May 2, 2023 / 3:00-4:30 PM Pacific Time

Several hospitals from the Pacific Northwest will jointly host free a webinar from 3-4:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 2, on how to collaborate to prevent massive nitrous oxide waste in medical gas systems. Register here.

Hospitals in our region have discovered shocking rates of nitrous oxide leakage and fugitive emissions associated with many central, piped nitrous oxide systems. Come learn about these findings, their environmental, health and safety implications, and the practical solutions we can employ to radically reduce nitrous oxide waste in hospitals and surgery centers.

In this webinar, anesthesia providers, health care facility managers and others will discuss the surprising inefficiency of tank rooms and central supply lines, as well as the ease and benefits of switching to a decentralized approach with no impact on patient care.

 

Continuing medical education credits are available to attendees.

Who Should Attend

  • Anesthesia providers and technicians
  • Health care facility managers and technicians
  • Perioperative services leaders
  • Health care construction review professionals
  • Medical gas suppliers and certifiers
  • Health care architects and mechanical engineers
  • Health care sustainability managers
  • Legislators and public sector climate professionals

Lessons to Expect

  • How direct patient clinical use makes up as little as 1% of purchased nitrous oxide in some hospitals
  • How unavoidable fugitive emissions occur in cryogenic tanks and in supply lines carrying nitrous oxide from a central manifold room to clinical spaces
  • The value proposition of decommissioning central supply lines in favor of E-cylinders employed at the point of use – safety improvements, efficiency gains, environmental benefits, occupational exposure reduction and financial savings
  • Case study examples and inspiration from four different health systems in this region that have completed or begun this work through a partnership between clinicians and health care facility managers
  • Specific steps for measuring your program to determine the level of opportunity and how-tos for implementing change at your facility
  • How to ensure that decommissioning central supply lines will not be perceived as a risky undertaking and will not put facility managers or clinicians in the “hot seat”

Agenda

  • Introductory remarks
  • Providence’s research, assessment and solutions – Dr. Brian Chesebro, anesthesiologist, and Andy Mason, regional facility director
  • Q&A with Dr. Chesebro and Mr. Mason
  • Hospital case studies
  • Virginia Mason Medical Center – Dr. Wyn Strodtbeck, anesthesiologist
  • PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center – Brian Nelson, sustainability manager
  • Seattle Children’s Hospital – Dr. Liz Hansen, Anesthesiologist
  • Opportunity for post-webinar implementation assistance
  • Discussion and continued Q&A

Preview
For a preview of this topic, the full recording of a CleanMed conference session, “Nitrous Oxide: Climate-Smart Anesthesia 201,” is available here on YouTube. For a summary of key points related to the reasons for acting on this issue, watch for one minute starting at 21:45 and for 11 minutes starting at 26:35.

The health care sector has a large climate footprint, which is responsible for 8.5% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. To mitigate climate change and its harm to human health, it is vital for the health care sector to reduce its emissions from all possible areas, including anesthetic gases.

Preventing enormous waste of nitrous oxide in medical gas systems across the health care industry will require collaboration among all the professions listed above in the Who Should Attend section. We urge you to share this announcement with your internal colleagues and your counterparts in other organizations. (Remy Kerr)

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Washington State Hospital Association
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Seattle, WA 98104

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