Clinician Knowledge and Attitudes About Climate Change and Health After a Quality Incentive Program.

Importance: Climate change is a fundamental threat to human health, and industries, including health care, must assess their respective contribution to this crisis. Objective: To assess the change in knowledge of clinicians who completed a quality incentive program (QIP) measure on climate change and health care sustainability and to examine clinician attitudes toward climate change and their perception of clinical and individual relevance. Design, Setting, and Participants: The participants in this survey study included employed physicians and psychologists who were part of a hospital physician organization in an academic medical center (AMC) in Boston, Massachusetts. The hospital physician organization provides a QIP with different measures every 6 months and provides incentive payments on completion. The study is based on a survey of participants on completion of a QIP measure focused on climate change and health care sustainability offered from July 2023 through September 2023 at the AMC. Exposure: Structured educational video modules. Main Outcomes and Measures: After completion of the modules, the participants reported their baseline and postintervention knowledge on climate change impacts on health and health care sustainability, perceived relevance of the material, and attitudes toward the modules using 5-point Likert scales and free-text comments. Data were analyzed using univariate and multivariable analyses including participant age, gender, and practice specialty. Results: Of the 2559 eligible clinicians, 2417 (94.5%) (mean [SD] age, 48.9 [11.5] years; range, 29-85 years; 1244 males [51.5%]) participated in the measure and completed the survey. Among these participants, 1767 (73.1%) thought the modules were relevant or very relevant to their lives and 1580 (65.4%) found the modules relevant or very relevant to their clinical practice. Age was not associated with responses. Practitioners in specialties classified as climate facing were more likely to think that the education was relevant to their clinical practice compared with those in non-climate-facing specialties (mean [SD] score, 3.76 [1.19] vs 3.61 [1.26]; P = .005). Practitioners identifying as female were also more likely to consider this education as relevant to their clinical practice compared with male practitioners (mean [SD] score, 3.82 [1.17] vs 3.56 [1.27]; P < .001). Conclusions and Relevance: In this survey study, a high proportion of clinicians expressed positive attitudes toward education in climate change and health and health care sustainability, with some demographic and specialty variability. These data support that climate and health education in AMCs provides information that practitioners see as relevant and important.

Reusable scrub caps are cost-effective and help reduce the climate footprint of surgery.

BACKGROUND: As the US healthcare sector contributes to 5-10% of national CO2 emissions, with a substantial contribution from surgical services, a collective effort is important to minimize the climate footprint of surgery. Solid plastic waste generated from single-use items in operating rooms is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. To address this problem, we implemented a pilot study to replace single-use scrub caps with reusable caps. METHODS: Ninety-two surgical trainees at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, were provided reusable personalized scrub caps. Over 6 months, their use of the reusable cap was compared with corresponding use of disposable single-use caps. We then used the cost of raw materials, fabric and cap manufacturing, transportation, and end-of-life/waste treatment to perform an economic and environmental burden analysis. RESULTS: After 6 months of reusable scrub cap use, 33 participants (51.6%) reported that due to their use of a reusable scrub cap, their utilization of disposable bouffant or caps had decreased by 76-100%. This was associated with a significant reduction in the use of single-use caps after adjusting for surgical case volume. The carbon footprint of single-use scrub caps was significantly higher than reusable caps during the study period. Reusable scrub cap usage also strongly correlated with substantial reductions in energy consumption and freshwater toxicity. CONCLUSIONS: Reusable personalized cloth scrub caps are cost-effective and can help reduce surgery's carbon footprint by reducing waste generated from disposable scrub cap use. More programs should consider replacing single-use polypropylene caps with reusable scrub caps for their operating room staff.