The Patient Experience Impacts of Hospital Environmental Sustainability Initiatives

Abstract

This talk examines whether environmental sustainability initiatives by hospitals affect patients’ experience and clinical outcomes. The analysis is based on archival data collected from approximately 4,000 US hospitals certified by the Department of Health and Human Services. The study focuses on the effect of sustainability initiatives by matching hospitals having formal sustainability programs with hospitals that do not have formal programs. Patient experience scores from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) Survey are then compared across the two matched groups. 

The study finds small yet significant differences between the two groups for several patient experience measures. The results indicate that hospitals that have formally adopted sustainability programs generally outperformed the matched group of conventional hospitals in terms of overall patient experience, willingness to recommend and assessment of the facilities. The analysis also revealed no significant difference in several clinical quality metrics between the two groups, indicating that sustainability initiatives do not compromise clinical quality of care.

Biography

Tonya Boone is an Associate Professor at the Raymond A. Mason School of Business, The College of William & Mary.
Her research and teaching interests include sustainable operations, knowledge management in professional service organizations, and the management of supply chains in data rich environments. Tonya’s research has been published in the top academic management journals, including Management Science, Journal of Operations Management, POMS Journal, and Decision Sciences. She is also a co-editor of the recent book Sustainable Supply Chain Management: Methods, Models, and Policy Implications.
Tonya is active in her community, serving on the Board of the Williamsburg Economic Development Authority, the Board of the Hampton Roads Incubator, and the Board of the Williamsburg Regional Library. She is a sought-after expert in the local community in the areas of sustainability, public service, and supply chain management.
Tonya Boone has a Ph.D. in Operations and Technology Management from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler School of Business; a MBA from the College of William and Mary; and a BS in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from the University of Kansas.

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Ram Ganeshan is the D. Hillsdon Ryan Professor of Business at the Raymond A. Mason School of Business, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA.
Ram’s teaching, research and consulting interests are in the areas of supply chain management, data analytics, and logistics strategy, primarily in the chemical, hi-tech, and retail industries.  He is a regular contributor to academic and trade journals and is the co-editor of three books including Quantitative Models for Supply Chain Management which is one of the most highly cited books in supply chain management. In 2001, the Production & Operations Management Society (POMS) awarded him the prestigious Wickham Skinner Award for his research on how supply chains can be efficiently managed. His current research projects extensively rely on big-data techniques to provide insights into making sound decisions for managing both manufacturing and service supply chains.
He received a Doctorate in Operations and Logistics Management from Penn State; a MSOR degree in Operations Research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and an undergraduate degree in Industrial Management from the Birla Institute of Technology & Science in India.

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