- Baguio City, Benguet
Several forums on environmental health attended by the staff of Notre Dame De Chartres Hospital moved the hospital to look at mercury alternatives. But it was the Administrator, Sr. Adelina B. Javellana, SPC, who initiated the shift to mercury-free devices.
Although funding was a major issue for the 4-year old hospital whose mercurial devices are relatively new, they did the purchasing of mercury-free devices slowly until total phase-out was achieved. The value of AO 21 plus patient safety were given outmost importance.
To date, The hospital is into other environmental health initiatives such as waste segregation, recycling and composting and veering away from harmful cleaners and process of moving away from medical devices that are made of polyvinyl chloride (PVCs) and planning and constructing a sewage treatment plant.
The hospital envisions itself to be a health care facility that will not only be a environmental-friendly but one that could model before other facilities in terms of educating the community, causing paradigm shift of mindset towards the value of promoting and preserving a healthy environment not only for the sick but to maintain the quality of life of a healthy community.