WASHINGTON, United States (CMC) – Two United Nations health organizations have launched a campaign to promote safe, green and smart hospitals in the Caribbean.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) said that nearly seven in 10 hospitals in Latin America and the Caribbean are located in disaster prone areas, putting them at risk of becoming casualties themselves during hurricanes, earthquakes or flooding.

They said the Smart Hospitals programme, a multi-year initiative financed by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), targets a dozen hospitals in Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

They said when Tropical Storm Erika struck Dominica in late August, causing death and destruction, three hospitals on the island were in the process of being evaluated as part of the programme.

“Natural disasters can have a major impact on the health sector and on people’s lives, and we need to ensure that health facilities are built to resist disasters while also being environmentally friendly,” said Dana Van Alphen, coordinator of the programme.

“A bonus is that hospitals that participate in this program also see their operating costs decline and produce less pollution.”

PAHO/WHO said a hospital is considered “smart” when it links structural and operational safety with green interventions, at a reasonable cost-benefit ratio.

“In “green” hospitals, air quality improves, water and energy costs decline, and people’s working conditions improve. These improvements also affect users’ decisions to visit health facilities: in hospitals that have adopted the Smart Hospitals programme, the number of users seeking care has increased by 40 per cent,” they said in a joint statement.

They said that participating hospitals have instituted measures including reinforcing their roofs and windows to resist hurricane-force winds, and installing new rainwater-collection tanks and solar panels to supplement their traditional sources of water and energy.

Other measures include improvements in accessibility for people with disabilities, use of energy-efficient LED light bulbs, and replacing air conditioners with newer, more energy-efficient models.

To help health administrators implement the Smart Hospitals programme, PAHO/WHO and a team of experts in public health, disasters, engineering, architecture, economics, energy and the environment developed a special toolkit that includes the Hospital Safety Index, a rapid-assessment tool for determining the probability that a health facility will be able to continue functioning in an emergency.

They have also developed a Baseline Assessment Tool to collect information a building’s performance and operations and how it measures up against current code, regulatory requirements and zoning regulations, and a Green Checklist which outlines feasible areas where “smart” measures can be introduced.