Hospitals strive to care for the sick and injured, working to cure or heal patients if at all possible. That goal is more difficult to achieve if the buildings in which patients receive care are toxic environments in and of themselves.

Surprisingly, "sick" hospital buildings are all too common. These structures contain carpets and other common building materials that can leach carcinogens and asthma triggers into the air, threatening the health of patients, providers and staff. In addition, hospital food often fails to meet federal nutritional guidelines. Beyond the hospital walls, health care facilities contribute disproportionately to the hazardous waste stream, adversely affecting the health of entire communities.

The health care community made good progress during the last decade in reversing some of those trends, but much remains to be done. Fortunately, as the nation embarks on a health care facility construction and renovation boom on the scale of $200 billion over the next decade, there is an enormous and pressing opportunity to create environmentally healthy and sustainable buildings from the inside out.

On September 28 and 29, 2006, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will disseminate many ideas for best practices in hospital design as it sponsors "Designing the 21st Century Hospital: Environmental Leadership for Healthier Patients and Facilities," in Hackensack, N.J. The Center for Health Design, together with Health Care Without Harm, will present a series of papers, and lead breakout sessions and panel discussions, focusing on values-driven design, implementation of environmental programs, the benefits of "green" hospitals, healthy food production, distribution and procurement, and more.

Examples of environmentally pioneering practices that will be showcased include:

• Kaiser Permanente's demand for a carpet that was PVC-free, recycled, high-performing, long-lasting and cost-comparable. To find product to match their demanding performance specifications, Kaiser found that they had to drive the market to innovate. Many carpet firms tried, but only one met the challenge. Now Kaiser Permanente facilities use a durable, low emission, PVC-free carpet with 75 percent post-consumer recycled product, which is better for the global environment and for the patients and staff within its facility walls.
• Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) is one of over 1,200 health care organizations partnering with Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E), an organization creating a national movement for environmental sustainability in health. DHMC has employed a full-time waste manager since 1990, and since has achieved a 40 percent recycling rate - among the highest in the nation.

If you can't be there, we offer resources that might provide useful information for administrators and designers.