45 – Healthcare Providers and Services, and Healthcare Technology

Sustainability
Category
Topic
Health service
effectiveness
Topic
Specification
(if available)
Cost
effectiveness of
key health
interventions
Explanation Reference(s) 1 Constituency
Health care facilities across the continent are
recognizing that the food system — how our food is
produced and distributed — is misaligned with dietary
guidelines, and is largely reliant on methods of
production and distribution that harm public and
environmental health.
The food system is inherently a deeply complex and
interwoven concept that must be considered from an
integrative, ecological perspective in order to develop
solutions that nourish our health and that of the planet.
Healthy Food in Health Care has selected a broadreaching
scope of topics of concern that form the basis
for our work. These issues, like antibiotic resistance, for
example, cut to the core of a hospital’s operations.
Others, like climate change and genetically engineered
foods, are matters of serious public health concern that
we believe the health care community has a capacity and
power to influence.
Some systems devote resources to expensive
interventions with small effects on population health,
while at the same time low cost interventions with
potentially greater benefits are not fully implemented.
The impact of interventions on population health is vital.
But it is also important to determine the role of different
interventions in contributing to other socially desirable
goals, such as reducing health inequalities, and being
responsive to the legitimate expectations of the
population
584 Mediating
Institution
The impact of interventions on population health is vital.
Sustainability Topics for Sectors: What do stakeholders want to know?
HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS AND SERVICES, AND HEALTHCARE TECHNOLOGY
May 2013
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