Care pathway carbon calculator
The Care Pathway Carbon Calculator has been produced to help provide a rapid and simple means to produce some indicative numbers on carbon emissions associated with care pathways.
Appraising the sustainability of models of care is seen as a crucial step to enabling a more sustainable health system.
In 2015 the Sustainable Healthcare Coalition, in collaboration with the NHS SDU and other stakeholders, developed guidance to make it easier to understand the sustainability of new models of care as they are created or existing models of care as they are transformed; the Care Pathways: Guidance on Appraising Sustainability.
The calculator follows our guidance, and makes use of carbon footprint data embedded in the guidance, to rapidly produce an estimate of a care pathway’s carbon footprint.
Such calculations can be used to appraise the relative materiality of different activities and guide users to where greatest opportunity exists for reducing the carbon footprint of care. It should not be seen as a surrogate for a full care pathway assessment if an accurate analysis is required.
Some aspects of care, such as the use of pharmaceuticals, are excluded from the calculator, as these will be specific to the conditions being managed. However the calculator does allow the user to enter additional data, if available, to cover medicines and any other activities relevant to the pathway being examined that aren’t currently included in the activity modules built into the calculator.
What is the Care Pathway Carbon Calculator?
The calculator follows guidance, and makes use of carbon footprint data, contained within the Sustainable Healthcare Coalition’s Care Pathways: Guidance on Appraising Sustainability. It uses a step-wise process to sum carbon from a number of separate processes associated with providing healthcare services to estimate the overall carbon footprint (kgCO2e) for any specified pathway and patient population. Such calculations can be used to appraise the relative materiality of different activities and guide users to where greatest opportunity exists for reducing the carbon footprint of care. The individual modules available cover:
• GP Consultation
• Patient self-travel to GP
• Patient self-travel to elective care
• Provided Patient Travel – Non-Emergency
• Emergency travel by ambulance
• Emergency department (A&E) visit
• Low-intensity bed day
• High-intensity (ICU) bed day
• Surgical procedure (66 min)
• MRI Scan (non-contrast)
• Self-management education course (6h)
One such hypothetical pathway might look like this:
Some aspects of care, such as the use of pharmaceuticals, are excluded from the calculator, as these will be specific to the conditions being managed. However the calculator does allow the user to enter additional data, if available, to cover medicines and any other activities relevant to the pathway being examined that aren’t currently included in the activity modules built into the calculator.
Who is the Care Pathway Carbon Calculator for?
This Care Pathway Carbon Calculator should be used by anyone interested in understanding the sustainability of health and care systems, including:
- Patients wanting to understand the sustainability issues regarding their health and care;
- Policy makers and regulators considering sustainability profiles when developing new models of care;
- Healthcare providers, commissioners and clinicians trying to understand where changes in operations can lead to an improved sustainability performance of a service;
- Suppliers who want to understand how their products or services benefit or impact the sustainability of health and care systems;
- Sustainability practitioners working to define the boundaries, data sources and requirements to consistently appraise healthcare services; and
- Academics exploring the sustainability issues associated with healthcare systems.
Background to the Care Pathway Carbon Calculator
In 2015 the Sustainable Healthcare Coalition (previously known as the Coalition for Sustainable Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices, CSPM), in collaboration with the NHS England and other stakeholders developed guidance to make it easier to understand the sustainability of new models of care as they are created or existing models of care as they are transformed; the Care Pathways: Guidance on Appraising Sustainability.
Appraising the sustainability of models of care is seen as a crucial step to enabling a more sustainable health system.
The Care Pathway Carbon Calculator has been produced to help provide a rapid and simple means to produce some indicative numbers on carbon emissions associated with care pathways. It should not be seen as a surrogate for a full care pathway assessment.