What is one thing ophthalmologists can do to make their practice more sustainable?
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Click here to read the cover story, “EyeSustain focuses on sustainability solutions with widespread agreement”
The most important thing that people can do to make their practice more sustainable is to educate themselves and members of their team.
The EyeSustain website is a central location where you can find numerous resources about how to be more sustainable in your clinic and your operating room. I will give you two quick examples.
One intervention is switching to an alcohol-based scrub in place of using a scrub brush with plastic packaging. This will have a large impact if you consider how many cases each ophthalmologist performs on any given surgery day. Instead of throwing away 10 or 20 scrub brushes and plastic containers, you can use an alcohol-based scrub and achieve the same goal without the waste.
Another intervention is adjusting the expiration date on your drops. Most clinics have an arbitrary expiration date of 28 days after opening eye drop bottles. However, if proper clean techniques are used, the medication can be used until the expiration date labeled on the bottle. Representatives from FDA have issued statements in support of this. So instead of discarding numerous bottles at 28 days, you can use it until the expiration date on the bottle, which considerably reduces waste. We are currently working with our pharmacy to implement this change.
These are two examples of interventions that can be made immediately in your operating room and clinic. But the most important thing is educating yourselves and your team on how we as a profession can become more sustainable. Please visit the EyeSustain website for more information on straightforward interventions that can be made to reduce the amount of waste that we produce in ophthalmology.
- For more information:
- Darby D. Miller, MD, MPH, is a cornea and cataract surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.
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