Mercy Health is committed to the health and well-being of its patients and communities as a mission-based organization. That includes committing to developing a sustainable culture through environmental stewardship and working with others to protect the environment and our community’s health now and for future generations.

Through efforts coordinated by a collaborative council of multi-disciplinary stakeholders across our ministry, Bon Secours Mercy Health (BSMH) and the Mercy Health Cincinnati market implemented system-wide sustainable initiatives that earned environmental excellence awards from Practice Greenhealth, a leading sustainability member organization for hospital networks.

For the second year in a row, BSMH won the System for Change Award, which recognizes health systems working cohesively to set system-wide sustainability goals, track performance data, benchmark, and support intra-organizational learning and implementation within their institutions.

Major health system successes that led to the award include:

· Achieving system-level recycling at Practice Greenhealth’s median percentage; BSMH’s average of 27% exceeds Practice Greenhealth’s target.

· Successfully confirmed system-level elimination of PVC/DEHP from gloves, breast pumps, and nutrition accessories such as feeding tubes.