Environmental Footprint of Regular and Intensive Inpatient Care in a Large US Hospital

The authors of this article explain the data in their study, which quantified average emissions associated with resource use in an acute inpatient unit with 49 beds and 14,427 hospitalization days and an intensive care unit (ICU) with 12 beds and 2536 hospitalization days. Results indicated that an acute care unit generates 5.5 kg of solid waste and 45 kg CO2-e per hospitalization day, while the ICU generates 7.1 kg of solid waste and 138 kg CO2-e per bed day. The authors also noted that emissions mainly originate from purchase of consumable goods, building energy consumption, purchase of capital equipment, food services, and staff travel.