What’s the “green grade” for your healthcare organization?

HealthBlog: “Going Green in Healthcare IT and improving organizational efficiency along the way – Strategies to improve “operational efficiency” in healthcare organizations are a recurring theme here on HealthBlog.  That’s why I wanted to share a new article on Green IT written by my colleague Chris Sullivan who manages our US health provider industry for Microsoft.  I know that Chris and his team would be very pleased to work with you directly or point you to additional resources in your quest to drive greater efficiency in your organization—a mission, in these challenging economic times, that has never been more important.”

The rest of the blog is a reprint of article titled “Going Green in IT” from ADVANCE for Health Information Executives.

I decided to see how my hospital stacked up against the recommendations from the article.

1. Server virtualization. – Check. We have been using virtualized servers as long as I’ve been here, about 18 months now. According to the article “each server eliminated through virtualization can reduce power consumption in a data center by 200 to 400 watts. This is the equivalent of about $380 per year, per server, factoring in the energy costs of air conditioning to cool the unit.” Easy money. – Grade “A”

2. Web conferencing, messaging and collaboration software to hold virtual employee meetings. – We’re not great, but getting better. We use web conferencing for long distance meetings, but will often travel short distances to meet face to face. I like web conferencing. It allows me to multi-task at my desk. You already know my thoughts on meetings – Grade “B”

3.  Desktop virtualization. – We’re failing with this one. To date we have no desktop virtualization. The topic has been discussed, but never implemented. I asked for a virtual desktop for report writing and number crunching and was offered a desktop PC instead. – Grade “F”

Based on the information above, the final healthcare “green grade” for our organization is a “C” (2.33 GPA). Not enough for a good scholarship, but good enough to keep playing football.