With the Divine Blessings of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences (SSSIHMS), Prasanthigram, received an award in recognition of "clean and green initiatives undertaken with best practices in environmental management" on June 05, 2023 - World Environment Day.

Dr. Gurumurthy, Director, SSSIHMS , Prasanthigram and Sri P. Haranath, Chief Engineer of SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram received the award from Sri Peddi Reddy Ramachandra Reddy, Hon’ble Minister for Energy, Environment, Forest, Science & Technology, Mines & Geology, Andhra Pradesh, at Vijayawada during a function conducted by the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board. 

Clean and Green initiatives at SSSIHMS, Puttaparthi

Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba has exhorted that Education and Medicine is a human birth right and everyone should have access to it all the time. In addition to that we should have respect for nature and use resources available to us judiciously. Swami said- Don’t waste Money, Don’t waste Time, Don’t waste Food, Don’t waste Energy.

The overarching policy of the our hospital is to "ensure environmental and energy compliance by incorporating sound environmental and energy management policies."

Let us now look at the various initiatives taken up by the hospital:

Air 

In a hospital like ours, the Diesel Generator (DG), which is a major contributor to air pollution in normal parlance, is highly controlled owing to its standby application.

• The exclusive feeder from the 132 kV electrical substation ensures the power failures are minimum, except for the Grid failures, which are extremely rare.

• Secondly, all the critical lifesaving areas of the hospital like Operation theatres, ICU’s, IT servers, Critical Care Units etc, are supported by Uninterrupted Power Supply units.

• Diesel Generator sets are strictly maintained as per the recommendation of DG manufacturers. All the A, B, C and D checks are followed to ensure that the engine conditions are safe and good with emission limits within the norms of Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board. 

• In addition to this, the hospital has grown hundreds of trees around the campus, which also play a very important role in minimising the air pollution. 

The hospital utilises DG sets to the bare minimum and this is evident from the fact that the total usage of DG sets is not more than 45 hours per annum per DG set for the past several years. 

Water

Water too plays a very important part in our daily usage in the hospital. The major consumption being on cleaning and laboratory front followed by gardening. Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) too is an important user of water in the hospital, but most of it is recirculated.

The domestic use contributes to more than 50% of the total daily consumption. 

Sewage Treatment Plant

All the sewage waste of domestic and hospital along with other waste generated by canteens is brought to the Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) where the effluent is first treated and then processed. The final effluent discharged is used for gardening and watering the lawns. The STP discharge is further treated in Reverse Osmosis plant and that water is used for cooling towers in HVAC application. The effluent discharged from STP has all the constituents within the limits. The inlet and outlet effluent of STP are regularly tested in authorised NABL certified laboratories in addition to the samples tested by APPCB in their own laboratories. 

Solar Power

The Sri Sathya Sai Central Trust established a 2.1 Mega Watt Solar Power Plant as a part of the Sai Mitra Project - Phase 1. Out of this 1.0 Mega Watt plant was installed on the hospital campus. Spread on an area of around 8 acres and established at an overall Phase 1 cost of around Rs. 10.5 crore the solar plant ensured lesser dependence on the power grid. Also it helped in reducing the carbon footprint of the hospital. For the solar plant at the SSSIHMS, Prasanthigram, the approach was to have both roof top solar panels and also use the fallow land available within the campus. The second phase of Sai Mitra Project largely concentrated on covering the Ashram buildings and Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning’s various campuses. The third phase of the project involved an augmentation of the installed capacity at SSSIHMS by 1.0 Mega Watt. 

With the completion of the third phase, the hospital’s dependence on the power grid decreased to around 33 per cent. The third phase of the solar power plant was established on a land area of 3.2 acres. On the whole the project will reduce the hospital’s carbon footprint by around 3200 tonnes of CO2 a year. 

In addition to the above, our hospital has also incorporated many energy conservation steps to save energy, and reduce electricity consumption. They are:

• LED Light Fixtures

We have replaced more than 90% of old fluorescent tube light fixtures in the hospital with LED battens and bulbs. This has reduced our electricity lighting load by 70%.Considering the fact that power consumption by LED for the same lumen output is less than 50% of that of traditional light. Added to this is the longevity of life of LED tubes and consequential reduced maintenance. Notwithstanding the improvement of power factor, LED lights operate at nearly unity Power Factor.

• BLDC Ceiling Fans

Another approach towards conservation is by replacement of regular ceiling fans (48 inches) with Brush Less Direct Current (BLDC) fans. The saving here is also substantial. The maximum consumption of a BLDC fan is around 30W at full speed and 8W at minimum speed as against 80W of a regular ceiling fan at all speeds.

• Solar Heaters

Solar heaters are yet another energy savers for us. For a place like Puttaparthi where solar energy is abundant, the hot water requirement is easily met with it. The same is used, not only for bathing and cleaning OTs and  surgical items, but also in sterilizers as feed water at 65 degree C. This not only reduces time for steam generation, but also the power consumption.

•  Timers

 All the streetlights are controlled using electronic timers and a close watch is kept for incorporating seasonal changes. 

Ground Water Recharge

Our hospital is also at the forefront of water management. Anantapur district has always been a parched and water has been a scarce commodity. Every effort is made to ensure that underground water levels are maintained. Check dams and rainwater harvesting are few of the measures implemented by us right from the initial days.

Tree Plantation

As we know, a matured tree absorbs 22kg of Co2 per year. As can be seen from the thick forest cover on the SSSIHMS campus, we initiated the process of tree planation a long time ago. The result has been beautiful greenery around the hospital building and availability of plenty of oxygen.

Bio-medical Waste Disposal

Hazardous waste satellite accumulation area is maintained under strict guidelines under regular verification by hospital as per Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board norms. Proper labelling of the storage containers is done, which eases the disposal process as per regulations. All the biomedical waste thus generated by the hospital is collected by Common Bio Medical Waste Treatment Facility, as recommended by APPCB.

The hospital provides training to all staff involved in Biomedical Waste (BMW) management during orientation program at the time of joining and further, once every year. Such staff undergoes immunisation for protection against diseases, which are likely to be transmitted by handling of the BMW. A regular health check is also conducted once every year. They are also provided with appropriate personal protective gear / equipment. We have an Infection Control Committee for clinical safety and a Safety Committee for the rest of the matters, which monitor the safety of not only patients and staff, but also the environment.

Environment preservation and management is a journey and not the end. We at the SSSIHMS try  continuously to evolve and maintain the standards and thereby protect the environment.