Specialty Care Archives - Cascades Canada

CASCADES Quality Improvement

CASCADES

Evidence-based ready-to-use planning documents with project goal, scope, problem/opportunity statement, current state, root causeanalysis, change ideas, potential metrics, and strategies for embedding and spreading.

Project Charter

Integrating Environmental Sustainability into Clinical Laboratories

This playbook provides information and resources that are relevant to many roles in the health system, including laboratory technicians, clinicians, facilities, health leaders, sustainability and energy managers, etc. The recommendations in this report are geared towards medical laboratories (including anatomical pathology) but the principles of sustainability interlaced throughout can apply to many departments in a health-care setting, or other laboratories such as research or educational. This playbook was adapted from a Greening the Lab Opportunity Investigation conducted by the Environmental Sustainability team at British Columbia’s Interior Health Authority.

Playbook

Environmental Sustainability in Radiology

This playbook is intended for all medical imaging professionals and teams including radiologists, technologists, healthcare executives, facility operations teams, allied healthcare providers, patients, and industry partners.

Playbook

Sustainable Anatomical Pathology

This Playbook comprises a summary of information relevant to AP, with added actions specific for AP labs to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other harmful environmental effects. The target audience for this Playbook are anatomical pathologists, and anatomical pathology laboratory technical managers and supervisors.

Playbook

Sustainable Kidney Care

This playbook is intended for all kidney health professionals and advocates. Patients, technicians, nurses, dieticians, pharmacists, administrators, nephrologists and industry partners all have important roles to play in providing quality kidney care while mitigating the impact of climate change and fostering responsible resource use. The playbook intends to: 1.Inform of the reciprocal relationship between climate change and kidney health. 2.Provide knowledge and tools to guide implementation and practice of environmentally sustainable kidney care (ESKC). 3.Inspire action using examples from Canadian settings and practitioners of ESKC.

Playbook

Sustainable Perioperative Care

CASCADES

This Playbook provides background information and implementation resources designed to address environmental sustainability in perioperative care.

Playbook

Regional Anesthesia in Breast Surgery

This Playbook was developed as an initiative by leaders in the field working to advance sustainability in regional anesthesia, with support from CASCADES.

Playbook

Formalin Recycling Circuit Protocol

Maggie Chen, Western University & London Health Sciences Centre

Formalin represents a significant source of chemical waste in pathology laboratories, with both its production and disposal carrying substantial environmental and financial costs. This resource outlines the formalin recycling methodology piloted within the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Department at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC). The initiative involved collecting and reusing clear formalin from surgical pathology biopsy specimens for subsequent use in the autopsy suite. Based on the results of this one-month pilot, projections indicate that expanding the protocol across all workstations for a full year could enable LHSC to save more than $3,000 annually in procurement costs while preventing 2,170 kg CO₂e emissions. By documenting and sharing this approach, we aim to support the operationalisation of sustainable waste management practices across other pathology departments and hospitals. For additional information or to request the final report and detailed results, please contact maggiee.chen@mail.utoronto.ca.

Protocol

Surgical Tray Optimization

CASCADES

Project Charter

Resident Quality Improvement (QI): Perioperative Opportunities for Healthcare Residents Primer

CASCADES

Residents have the unique combination of clinical knowledge and leadership ability, as well as exposure to a variety of practice settings during their training, to bring about positive change in the perioperative space. If you want to make a change in your center, or are curious about what opportunities exist, check out these five simple steps to significantly reduce your professional carbon footprint.

Primer

All Resources