(A010) Surgical Staff Perceptions of the Environmental Impact of Operating Rooms and Potential Sustainability Interventions

Introduction: Researchers estimate that ~30% of worldwide health-related disease is surgical, and over four billion pounds of waste are produced by operating rooms per year in the US alone. This survey aimed to assess surgical staff’s perceptions of operating room (OR) environmental impact to inform future sustainability efforts

Methods: This survey (March - June 2024) was sent to operating room stakeholders (e.g., attending surgeons, residents, scrub technicians, nurses) via RedCap. It included 34 Likert-style questions regarding attitudes and perspectives about various factors related to OR resource utilization as well as demographic information. Descriptive statistics were calculated.

Results: A total of 197 OR staff members completed the survey. Attending surgeons and anesthesiologists represented 35% of participants, 21% were trainees, 19% APPs, 17% RNs, 4% scrub techs, 3% central processing staff, and 5% other roles. An example question was “Education about the environmental impacts of various OR practices should be part of training for all OR stakeholders” with 3% reporting strongly disagree or disagree, 10% reporting a neutral opinion, and 73% reporting agree or strongly agree. The remainder did not provide a response. Another example was “Healthcare systems should adopt practices and policies that improve sustainability of the operating room.” Of the 178 participants who responded, < 1% disagreed or strongly disagreed, 5% had a neutral opinion, and 84% agreed or strongly agreed.

Conclusions: There was a belief that a lack of education and individual value placed on sustainability concerns are significant drivers of environmental impact; however, many respondents did not believe the individual can make a difference. Topics such as perceived safety and performance benefits of single-use items were thought to play a smaller role. Most participants believed regulatory bodies, healthcare systems, professional societies, and manufacturers should play a larger role in promoting sustainability efforts.