Sweden’s Karolinska University Hospital aims to raise the bar for sustainability in health care by improving quality of care and achieving the lowest environmental impact for a new hospital at its new site in Solna. The hospital will innovate towards improved, sustainable patient care, including through its new partnership with Philips and its focus on improved care, quality, optimising energy efficiency and cutting chemical waste.
“Improving patient outcomes while respecting the environment is fundamental to our hospital and will be a key factor in our future success,” explains Professor Johan Permert, Karolinska’s director of development and innovation. “We’re under increasing pressure to provide a higher quality of care while using fewer resources and saving costs, so it’s vital that we continually broaden our thinking by forming innovation partnerships with like-minded partners.”
With a firm commitment to conserving natural resources, promoting health and wellbeing and reducing its carbon footprint, Karolinska consistently strives to improve its environmental performance. It has held the ISO 14001 standard since 2005, reduced its emissions of nitrous oxide by 75% and cut its use of hazardous chemicals by 80% from 2007 to 2011, and is a Health Care without Harm member. With 550 internal environmental ambassadors, the university actively encourages all its employees to participate in achieving the eight key goals of its sustainability program.
Sustainability will be integrated into every aspect of the new hospital buildings, with features including resource-efficient materials, low energy designs, smart processing of chemical waste and a cutting-edge heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) system. Karolinska Solna is likely to become the first Swedish hospital to achieve three leading green building certifications and will ultimately seek to purchase all its energy from renewable sources.
Karolinska only partners with suppliers that fulfil strict environmental criteria. Together, they seek to push the boundaries of innovation. For example, Karolinska partners with both Compodium and other telecommunication providers to develop new ways to integrate telecommunications into care chains and medical processes. Together with Boston Scientific it has developed a model for connecting Karolinska’s endoscopy experts to provide remote support to other endoscopy units in its partnership network. Meanwhile, its partner AbbVie and ATEA support the hospital to deliver advanced treatment to Parkinson’s patients at their home.
Buying medical equipment as a service
Through its new partnership with Philips and Stockholm County Council, Karolinska’s Solna site will benefit from access to medical imaging solutions for 14 years. Under the performance-based agreement, Philips will be responsible for procuring, installing, maintaining, repairing and upgrading or replacing equipment as well as education/training, while Karolinska will gain high-tech equipment and services at predictable costs. Philips will also establish a research and innovation hub at the hospital for collaborative research projects.
“Equipping our new hospital with the latest technology is a substantial project, so we needed a stable and reliable partner,” says Permert. “Quality, collaboration and transparency are all central to our new partnership with Philips. We will both benefit through innovating together, and importantly, we know exactly what to expect in terms of service, cost and quality. Being confident of a consistent level of technical performance will help to reduce risk and improve patient outcomes.”
Karolinska will have access to state-of-the art imaging solutions and services, including MRI, CT, ultrasound and interventional X-ray systems. These will be used throughout the new hospital in radiology, cardiology, neurology, oncology and paediatrics for both patient care and clinical research.
Some 40% of the equipment will be supplied from Philips’ own product ranges, with the remainder from other providers. Karolinska and Philips will make the selection based entirely on the needs of the hospital, while supporting Karolinska’s sustainability vision by focusing on energy efficiency and patient safety.
Philips will monitor the performance of every piece of equipment closely, carrying out services, repairs and new installations in a timely manner. It will report regularly on the performance of the overall service to Stockholm County Council and Karolinska, and may have the opportunity to supply more of its own products or extend the contract for another six years, if it delivers strong results.
“By taking the responsibility of maintaining and replacing equipment in a contracted partnership with Philips, we expect to save costs and channel our spending more efficiently towards more high tech, sustainable equipment,” says Permert. “In the past, we often waited too long to replace machines, and lacked an overarching equipment strategy and had to make rapid, last-minute decisions. In developing Karolinska Solna, we wanted to make a fresh start and step up our focus on innovation, safety and energy-saving.”
Collaborating to meet future health care needs
Karolinska has developed a generic model for innovation partnerships with different types of companies. The partnership with Philips is one of the most significant and important. Through Karolinska Solna’s research and innovation hub, Philips and Karolinska will identify areas for collaboration, uniting expert teams from industry, the hospital and academia to tackle health care gaps and important issues like radiation safety. Researchers will explore how new and existing technologies can improve care processes, helping to build a closer link between clinical research and delivery of care. Every project will be rigorously evaluated, with success determined by patient outcomes and cost savings.
“Innovation brings new possibilities and tools to create real, lasting patient benefits,” concludes Permert. “Through our open innovation partnership with Philips, we aim to accelerate the transformation of research findings into new therapies and treatments for our patients.”
For Philips, its new multi-year agreement with Karolinska reinforces the company’s strategy to become a solutions partner for health care customers, helping to improve lives and revolutionise care by delivering ‘functionality’ and ‘performance’, as it continues its journey towards the circular economy.
Katharine Earley is a copywriter and journalist, specialising in sustainability
More from the Philips partner zone:
- Tapping into the potential of 3D printing to reduce plastic waste
- Recycling: ‘the loop of last resort’ within a circular economy
- 10 things you need to know about the circular economy
Content on this page is paid for and provided by Philips, sponsor of the circular economy hub
