At the height of a global discussion around the need to reduce hospital waste, an innovative partnership between a Dutch artist and a Swedish healthcare company shows that up to 90% of packaging waste, the major contributor to operating room waste, can be reduced.
In 2019 Dutch artist Maria Koijck underwent a full mastectomy following a breast cancer diagnosis. The waste from her 10-hour breast reconstruction surgery two years later, including post-op care, resulted in an art installation where she challenged the healthcare industry on more sustainable solutions.
“I was shocked when I discovered how much waste a procedure like mine generated,” said Maria Koijck. “I'm happy that my original video got a lot of attention and reactions from the healthcare industry. But for a long time, my question has been unanswered”.
The result, Mölnlycke Health Care, a global provider of innovations in wound care and operating room solutions, teamed up with Maria Koijck to recreate her artwork with Mölnlycke’s proprietary “ProcedurePak®” which proved that packaging waste can be reduced by up to 90%. (Visit: https://youtu.be/J1InyHgC5oo)
About Mölnlycke ProcedurePak®:
Mölnlycke’s pre-sterilised tailored procedure tray (ProcedurePak) contains everything needed for a specific procedure gathered in one package, significantly reducing the packaging waste, as well as surplus items generated by more generic procedure trays. In addition to reducing packaging waste with up to 90%, ProcedurePaks help facilitate more procedures by reducing surgery preparation time by up to 40%.1,2
The Campaign page can be viewed at: https://www.molnlycke.co.uk/campaigns/reducesurgicalwaste/
References
- Mölnlycke claims that the ProcedurePak solution can reduce surgical packaging waste by up to 90%. The evidence supporting this claim can be found in the following report: Assessing the carbon and waste benefits of moving to Procedure Packs at Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals, NHS Trust, 2011.
- In one ProcedurePak solution you will be able to reduce preparation time by up to 40%. The evidence supporting this claim can be found in the following report: Greiling M. A multinational case study to evaluate and quantify time-saving by using custom procedure trays for operating room efficiency. Poster presentation at the 23rd Congress of EAHM, Zürich, Switzerland, 9-10 Sep 2010.
