Eco-friendly initiatives and technological advances at Masina Hospital

Masina Hospital is one of the oldest hospitals in the city of Mumbai; as such, it carries more than a century-old rich legacy of being cited as the first private charitable trust hospital of Mumbai.

While evolution calls for technological advancements, it does not call for reckless implementation of technology. Technology also needs to be implemented smartly, such that its advantages cannot be criticized for its shortcomings. In this modern era, several technologies provide a cutting edge; however, the cutting edge often comes at a cost that is overlooked. Therefore, understanding the weight of the legacy, Masina Hospital opted to take a slightly different route using technology that served two purposes – taking the strain off our environment and at the same time providing cutting edge to consistently meet the standards set by our reputation.

Masina Hospital, over the course of the next 12 months, hopes to gain an edge in the pursuit of its vision to become a hospital that delivers cutting-edge healthcare services, while giving utmost importance to the environment around, but above it all a hospital that comes together for a single task, that being, saving as many lives as it can. The spirit of this vision embodies not just my will but also that of every person that proudly calls himself or herself as a member of Team Masina. This is a will that not only upholds the spirit of humanity but also the spirit of valuing the environment that gives life to humanity.

In pursuit of the above-mentioned vision, Masina Hospital has already put initiatives in place. These initiatives have been implemented with the singular aim of pursuing the ambitious goal set by the vision of Team Masina.

The initiatives were designed to follow a three-pronged approach:

• Increasing the dependency on renewable sources, thereby reducing the impact on the environment;
• Reducing expenses to utilize the resources more effectively; and
• Reducing energy requirements in order to utilize the energy savings on advanced medical technologies that go a long way in saving lives.

We followed this approach to select the most efficient initiatives out of available options. Initiatives like installa­tion of a 44.8 (kWp) solar rooftop plant that powers the electricity consumption of not only the hospital’s main building but also of the ICU and even the operation theater, setting up a bio-compost plant which processes composting waste through aerobic bacterial organisms that disintegrate waste and make it biodegradable, thereby enhancing the composting process that helps in reducing the waste generated and increases the reliance on renewable energy, and finally the installation of water recycling plants that ensure water wastage is minimized, an effluent treatment plant (ETP) and a sewage treatment plant (STP) to minimize the water wastage and maximize the usage of recycled water.

Apart from these initiatives, our hospital did its part by undertaking small steps that have huge impact – steps like replacing regular incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent (CFL) or LED bulbs save on energy and thus reduce the burden of energy requirements and consistent upgradation of all electronic appliances to the versions that pose the least burden to the environment.

We implemented life-saving technologies in:

• The department of psychiatry that uses cutting-edge technology and world-class expertise care of mental health to help its patients;
• The full-fledged unit of orthopedics and joint replacement surgeries, offering world-class expertise of doctors and technology under one roof;
• The Masina Heart Institute that is a pioneer in utilization of modern techniques in conjunction with cutting edge technology to deliver safer solutions to complicated cardiac cases;
• The Burns Center, being one of the handful centers in Mumbai to cater to complex burn injuries;
• The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), one of the oldest ones in the city, that improves life expectancy of children;
• The blood center that houses an international standard of quality and safety of collecting, processing, testing, transfusing, and distributing blood and blood products; and
• The newly revamped nutritional kitchen that utilizes modern techniques to deliver top-quality nutritional food, aimed at providing a balanced and fulfilling diet.