Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein of São

Yesterday was a busy day of travel and I was a little disappointed to hear that I'm not eligible for the post-doc Fulbright until NEXT year (assuming a PhD-award date in summer 2013) BUT that gives me a whole other year for planning some super awesome research in Brazil. Which leads me to São Paulo...

I was a little nervous the folks at Albert Einstein Hospital wouldn't be ready for me (because I hadn't heard much from them) but it was in fact quite the opposite, once I arrived and finally found my contact. But first things first: the hospital is VERY well labeled. And very secure too. It's composed of about 5 buildings I think plus a new one will be constructed shortly. Two of the buildings are (or are in the process of being) certified through LEED. And the old building (where the engineers currently are) actually looked pretty new to me. Some of the furniture was a little worn, but the offices were the communal, open-window, lots-of-natural-lighting I would expect from one of the US's hip new buildings. Albert Einstein also recently became a PlaneTree hospital for it's quality patient-centered care. They also have projects outside of their neighborhood (which is a very wealthy part of sampa) in the favelas within view of the hospital. It sounded like a pretty cool outreach campaign.

So with the background out of the way, let me tell you about the tour! I had two very wonderful guides- Luciane and Bruna- both engineers, I believe. They took me all over the hospital, looking at the waste streams from the maternity ward and children's wing all the way down to the processing station- they autoclave the blood viles and such before sending them out (which is a bit different from the US). Bruna also took me to the rooftop where the water system is- SOOO cool. They treat the city water with chlorine AND UV and then run it through the waste water from the air conditioners (in a separate system) to pick up the excess heat. It's also passed through some solar-tubing to pick up even more heat. A very complex system, but very neat. I was wondering if US hospitals can just use city water directly? But they did say this was for the people who are replacing joints and such or staying for longer... very interesting. Bruna also showed me the green roofs (they collect the water that flows through to use for irrigation, I believe).

Also talked with Marcos, an engineer who attended CleanMed. He's a very nice man who was more interested in my story I guess. And Bruna took me to lunch in the (very nice) cafeteria where I met a few other engineers who were all asking, "What's better in the US? What's better here?" They want to keep improving the hospital, but I must say- it's really a world-premier hospital from what I saw. Their sustainability program is rooted in their culture and thus is present at all levels- and it's not just environmental sustainability, but social responsibility as well. It's not just one initiative or one program, it's the whole hospital. There's just not many hospitals in the US at this point that are this comprehensive with their commitment to soaring above the status quo.

I have to send them all a thank you email yet- I flew back to Vitoria almost right after and was pretty tired. I think I might have to visit again in June, but I don't yet know what I could offer them! Though they were interested in learning more about full LCAs, since right now they've only done carbon footprinting and a little ozone depletion assessment work (with the CFCs/H-CFCs in their HVAC). It was so cool.