Health Care Without Harm Program

Oregon PSR partners with Health Care Without Harm to support healthcare facility/sustainability departments, hospital foodservice departments, and health professionals to improve the ecological sustainability of healthcare operations and engage in best practices for ecological health through educational events, tools & resources, and direct technical and engagement support.  

• Oregon Healthy Food in Health Care Project: Providing educational opportunities, resources and support for healthcare foodservice departments at Oregon hospitals.
• Sustainable Food Clinical Advocacy Project: Providing educational and training opportunities as well as advocacy engagement for health practitioners interested in supporting greater public understanding and effective policy solutions to sustainable food system issues. 
• Oregon Sustainable Hospitals Project: Providing educational opportunities, resources and support for healthcare institutions in Oregon.

To learn more and become involved with Oregon PSR’s Health Care Without Harm Program, please contact Emma Sirois at emma@oregonpsr.org or 503-780-9859.

About Health Care Without Harm

Just as the Hippocratic Oath promises to, "first, do no harm," health care providers have a responsibility to eliminate practices that harm people and the environment.  Together with their partners around the world, HCWH shares a Vision of a health care sector that does no harm, and instead promotes the health of people and the environment.  The mission of Health Care Without Harm is to transform the health care sector worldwide, without compromising patient safety or care, so that it is ecologically sustainable and no longer a source of harm to public health and the environment.

Since 1996 HCWH has worked with their partners to implement ecologically sound and healthy alternatives to health care practices that pollute the environment and contribute to disease.  The huge scale of the health care sector worldwide means that unhealthy practices — such as poor waste management, use of toxic chemicals, unhealthy food choices and reliance on polluting technologies — have a major negative impact on the health of humans and the environment.  The good news is that the health care sector can play a leading role in solving these problems. Due to its massive buying power, and its mission-driven interest in preventing disease, the health care sector can help shift the entire economy toward sustainable, safer products and practices. 

Health Care Without Harm Program Funding and Support

 The work done by the Health Care Without Harm Program at Oregon Physicians for Social Resposibility would not be possible without the generous support from our funders. Special thanks to: Multnomah County Health Department/CDC Communities Putting Prevention to Work, Health Care Without Harm, and Kaiser Permanente Community Benefit.