Sustainability in health services

Guest Editors

Virginia McKay, PhD, MA, Brown School Washington University in St. Louis, USA
Judith Singleton, BPharm, MBA (Hons), PhD, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

Submission Status: Open | Submission Deadline: 29 November 2024

BMC Health Services Research is calling for submissions to our Collection on Sustainability in health services. The healthcare sector, traditionally resource-intensive, is progressively acknowledging the importance of eco-conscious practices while ensuring the provision of essential and clinically effective healthcare in an affordable and equitable manner. This shift towards sustainability not only addresses immediate concerns but also positions healthcare to play a proactive role in promoting a healthier planet for future generations and fostering long-term environmental resilience. This collection invites original research articles, systematic and scoping reviews that delve into various aspects of sustainability within health services.

New Content Item This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being, SDG 11: Sustainable cities & communities and SDG 12: Responsible Consumption & Production.

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Meet the Guest Editors

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Virginia McKay, PhD, MA, Brown School Washington University in St. Louis, USA

Dr McKay is an assistant professor in the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. Her research focuses on the dissemination and implementation (D&I) of evidence-based practices to prevent infectious disease and promote antibiotic stewardship, especially the sustainability and de-implementation of interventions.

Judith Singleton, BPharm, MBA (Hons), PhD, Queensland University of Technology, Australia

Dr Singleton has had an extensive career in community and hospital pharmacy and in 2009 was a recipient of a Queensland Health award for her research and work in expanded scope of practice for pharmacy technicians. Dr Singleton has been a university lecturer since 2007 at the University of Queensland and QUT. Dr Singleton's research focus is sustainability; specifically, reducing the environmental impact of healthcare. Dr Singleton also researches in disaster health management, looking at the impacts of disasters on community pharmacy operations. She is research lead of the EARTH (Environmentally Active Research Transforming Healthcare) research group based at QUT in the QUT Resilience Centre.

About the Collection

BMC Health Services Research is calling for submissions to our Collection on Sustainability in health services.

Environmental sustainability is now a crucial focus in healthcare systems due to their substantial ecological impact, involving issues such as waste generation, high energy usage in healthcare facilities, transportation emissions, water contamination and consumption, building infrastructure, and pharmaceutical disposal. The healthcare sector, traditionally resource-intensive, is progressively acknowledging the importance of eco-conscious practices while ensuring the provision of essential and clinically effective healthcare in an affordable and equitable manner. This shift towards sustainability not only addresses immediate concerns but also positions healthcare to play a proactive role in promoting a healthier planet for future generations and fostering long-term environmental resilience.

This collection invites original research articles, systematic and scoping reviews as well as study protocols that delve into various aspects of sustainability within health services. Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

Adoption and implementation of national environmental sustainability policies for health systems
Measures of sustainability in healthcare
Frameworks leading sustainability transformation in healthcare
Sustainable design principles and practices for healthcare facilities to reduce their environmental impact
Sustainability of health services, from digital health records to energy-efficient medical equipment
Implementing circular economy principles in healthcare supply chains from procurement to disposal
Community engagement for sustainable health
Strategies to incorporate sustainability education into medical and healthcare professional training programs
Methodologies for measuring and reducing the carbon footprint of healthcare organizations
Evaluating the obstacles and advancements in the management of medical waste
Regulatory issues on the path to reusable medical device adoption

This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being, SDG 11: Sustainable cities & communities and SDG 12: Responsible Consumption & Production.

Image credit: mrgao / Getty Images / iStock

There are currently no articles in this collection.

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Sustainability in health services" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.