For everything from recycling programs to reducing its energy usage, Providence Medford Medical Center has earned national recognition for its health care sustainability efforts.

Providence Medford was awarded the Practice Greenhealth Partner for Change award for 2024. According to the membership and networking organization, which describes itself as the “leading sustainable health care organization,” the award recognizes “superior performance in environmental sustainability” through multiple programs.

The hospital shares the award with 239 other health care organizations across the country, including 13 other hospitals within the Providence health system.

According to Michael Geller, Providence’s senior program manager of environmental stewardship, the application is roughly 80 pages and covers categories that include general waste, energy usage, water usage, food waste, chemical waste and climate.

“It’s quite extensive,” Geller said, adding that in order to win the award, hospitals must “be doing something in every category.”

Geller said Providence Medford’s goal is to have less than half of the hospital’s waste sent to landfills or incineration by 2030. At present, the hospital is “barely over 30%,” but he touted an innovative recycling program coming online to help meet the goal.

The program involves the expansion of a new partnership with a medical supply company in which the supplier will start carrying bags of commingled recycling to Portland Recycling Center, where Providence employs workers with disabilities to hand sort the materials.

While much of the material will include boxboard packaging, plastics will be melted down into pellets through a partnership with Denton Plastics of Gresham.

“There’s nobody else doing this in Oregon — especially Southern Oregon,” Geller said.

All the pieces are nearly in place for Providence Medford to participate, and said the sustainability initiative should roll out “any week now.”

Bringing Medford online has been a challenge because of Providence Medford’s distance from the Portland metropolitan area, but Geller said the hospital found opportunity with the medical supplier because the supplier’s trucks were returning north empty.

“We’ve been struggling because transportation is one of the biggest issues,” Geller said.

Other recycling initiatives include a new recycling program for all the alkaline batteries the hospital uses. Batteries using other hazardous materials have always been recycled, but Geller said the alkaline battery program follows a sustainability audit conducted early last year.

Health care accounts for 8.5% of the country’s greenhouse gases, according to Geller, so efficiency has been a focus at the Medford hospital and across its health system.

He touted a switch to more energy-efficient and UV-resistant windows in Medford. The most recent phase of the window project was completed in February. 

“It just makes the building more comfortable for caregivers and patients,” Geller said.

Providence Medford also hired an outside consultant for a water usage audit, which helped the hospital develop a reduction plan. It points out more efficient plumbing fixtures such as toilets to help the hospital meet future sustainability goals.

“Especially in Southern Oregon I think it’s extremely important,” Geller said.

Providence began working with Practice Greenhealth in a small handful of facilities in the mid-2000s, according to Geller. The entire health system has been working with the organization since 2012.

Through the organization, Providence gets insights and information on best practices shared across 1,500 hospitals in the U.S.

Providence Medford was one of 55 Providence hospitals given an environmental excellence award through Practice Greenhealth. Because of those awards, Providence’s entire health system was awarded a Practice Greenhealth System for Change award, joining eight other regional health systems across the country.

The System for Change award recognizes “health systems that are working cohesively to set systemwide sustainability goals, track performance data, benchmark and support intra organization learning within their institutions,” according to the Practice Greenhealth website.