UPMC clinicians discussed their efforts to improve sustainability at hospitals in the Environmental Health News article “Pittsburgh-area hospitals tackling climate emissions, pollution and waste.” The article features Isabela Angelelli, MD (UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh) and a group she co-founded, Clinicians for Climate Action, a coalition of healthcare professionals committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from healthcare systems in Pennsylvania and beyond.
Dr. Angelelli has been instrumental in the multidisciplinary collaboration behind a project discussed in the article to eliminate UPMC’s use of desflurane, an anesthetic gas that’s 2,500 times more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to global warming potential and stays in the atmosphere for decades. “Most clinicians have no idea about this, so the first step is education, sharing this information with our anesthesiology department and leadership, and making sure everyone is part of the conversation so we’re confident this decision won’t negatively impact patients," she says.
The project utilizes low flow anesthesia to help reduce our department’s overall carbon footprint and was spearheaded and implemented at UPMC Presbyterian by Joseph J. Ferriero, MSN, CRNA, and PGY-2 resident Miya Oliver, MD.