The other ESG

According to a recent report, flooding,?heat waves, wildfires, and other climate-driven weather extremes in recent years have catapulted hospitals into emergency mode and devastated the communities they serve, with Hurricane Ian’s deadly rampage through central Florida only the most recent example.

But while hospitals might seem to be the unwitting victims of climate disasters, the U.S. health care system — and hospitals in particular — shoulder a good deal of the blame. The health care sector accounts for about 8.5% of all the greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., and about 4.5% of worldwide emissions. These emissions are generated mostly from running energy-draining facilities 24/7, and from the vast array of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, food, and other goods and services produced, purchased, and sometimes wasted. Sick care waste is a $1T problem.

ESG (environmental, social and governance) is a framework for understanding and measuring how sustainably an organization is operating. In sick care, it has taken a back seat to the quintuple aims-quality, cost, equitable access, patient, and professional experience and unnecessary administrivia and administrative burdens.

Tech companies are turning to nuclear power to advance their AI ambitions.

While these issues apply to the use of artificial intelligence, the other AI ESG describes education, strategy, and go to enterprise.

Think of the pathway to overcoming the barriers to AI dissemination and implementation as ready, set, go

EDUCATION

What do sick care professionals need to know about artificial intelligence?

STRATEGY

Three steps to digital/AI transformation

GO to enterprise

AI adoption, dissemination and implementation issues

Why hire physician intrapreneurs... and what to do with them once you have?

What is your sick care AI maturity model?

Ready (education). Set (strategy). Execution (Go)

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs on Substack