Solarpunk

Prevention. The fewer people coming through the hospital, the less waste generated.

If someone comes in with a problem that can be solved permanently (e.g. type 2 diabetes), solve it the first time so that they won't be back.

EDIT: Anyone on the hospital staff, nurse or receptionist or janitor, can share information that could help someone to avoid repeat hospital visits. Just give a disclaimer like "I'm not a doctor, so don't take this as medical advice, but..." and then tell the patient with diabetes or atherosclerosis about the benefits of a low-fat plant-based diet (and maybe give them a simple link like pcrm.org), or direct the biker with the fractured skull to a source of quality motorcycle helmets, or provide the addict who overdosed with the contact information of a local support group... We never really know how big a difference our actions can make.

@Murse open source medical devices are a huge step, lowering cost and spreading access. OpenFlexure is a great example.

There will be a conference in Bulgaria this year about the future of medicine from a sociological perspective, I know some open medicine people will be there!

The open source insulin project comes to mind. It's be nice if there were more projects like that.

I think in existing hospitals the biggest potential for small Solarpunk efforts is around visitors (family members etc.). Another topic could be food preparation for patients.

My mom works in a care home for seniors and one thing she’s done is asked residents about their entertainment needs and tried to bring in book/magazines that they like to stock the rec room. Probably not super useful at a regular hospital with more temporary stays.

In my area someone also organizes community care days for our unhoused populations. These consist in recruiting a bunch of local people willing to share their skills (haircuts, vaccines, medical consultation, painting nails, grooming or medical attention for pets, etc). They also rent mobile shower units. Since you can’t just go into the park and practice medicine by yourself the medical staff for these events come through a local non-profit that has done the necessary paperwork for insurance and stuff. These events sometimes draw people who are hesitant to visit the hospital for various reasons but would like to ask about a medical issue they’ve been experiencing.

I’ll try to think of more things. I agree the industry has tons of people who care deeply about other people and who would love to improve conditions (both for patients and workers).

When I was recovering from one surgery, I was kept in a very well maintained ward in the hospital, but it was very sterile and temperature controlled without life to it. I don't know how you would do it without taking too much space, but it would have been nice to have some greenery to look at as I was pacing up and down the hall per doctor's orders.

Prevention and natural medicine is what came to mind right away. Not the vodoo healing essence stuff but actually herbs, plants aso. Hildegard von Bingens book is a pure tressuretrove! Also native american and african healing plants that europeans discarded as "useless weeds" are finally being studied more for that reason

Why do our hospitals look so bleak? We could have greener hospitals like Khoo Teck Puat or Ng Teng Fong, both in Singapore

Khoo Teck Puat hospital as an example:

Designed to be ‘forest-like’, water features with aquatic species, and plants that attract birds and butterflies were introduced. Greenery extended from the central courtyard to upper levels of the buildings and down into the open-to-sky basement, creating the impression of architecture deeply enmeshed in a garden. At the upper levels, balconies with scented plants bring the experience to the patient’s bedside.

Total surface area of horizontal and vertical greenery is almost four times the size of the land that the hospital sits on. In addition, 18% of the hospital’s floor area account for blue-green spaces and 40% of all such spaces are publicly accessible

[...] Common areas such as the main lobby and public corridors were specially designed for optimal natural ventilation thereby reducing the need for mechanical ventilation and energy consumption. By orientating the subsidized ward tower to ‘capture’ the prevailing North and South East winds, an optimal wind speed is achieved which would provide adequate thermal comfort for the patients.

[...] It is also a serves as a tranquil communal node where the local community can attend public lectures, exhibitions or participate in educational programs organized by the hospital.²

The energy-efficient design reduces energy costs by 50% and provides 40% of the floor area with the potential for natural ventilation.³

Video format about it for those that prefer it:
https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=Jw1b_SviPyU&t=275s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw1b_SviPyU&t=275s

You probably won't be able to redesign/retrofit everything, but perhaps just a little bit more green instead of only concrete?

I'm afraid hospitals are systemically and ideologically incompatible with solar punk.

getting together with other medics and starting neighborhood clinics however would be much easier than attempting reform from the inside.

also stuff like DIY medicine, it would help me greatly as a trans person if medics stopped policing medical knowledge and taught us their skills instead. the idea that medicine can only be safe if practiced with a license is one that's getting countless trans people killed because we're denied the autonomy to save ourselves. the major example is DIY estrogen being safe but most doctors would tell me succumbing to a dysphoria-induced suicide is the healthier option

I'm very biased towards thinking we need better systems thinking. Treat each patient like a the ecosystem we are, you know?

Mostly out of frustration on how as a sysadmin and a gardener I seemed to take more time to consider how various systems and components interacted with each other we making changes or addressing problems then most my life time of medical experiences. Those have been largely problem-fix type thinking, where you try to as fast as possible bandaid a problem and move it to "solved" as fast as possible.

To give you an example what that would look like to me (and my biases). Patient Bob comes in saying his ear hurts. You process him in, check his vitals, run some basic diags related to his ear canals, sinuses, etc. Cross reference his past health data. Cross reference public health data related to where he is and has been. If additional tests to help narrorow it down, get those done. Start a treatment plan.

That is unchanged largely. This is where the difference happens. His case is now on the backlog to follow up on. If this is an chronic condition then the doctor should follow up with specialists and work on a long term care plan and hospital reach back out to them when they need more information or have some more information on the long term plan.

This is true for ANY chronic condition or worrying diag result, until they are resolved.

If this comes down to "known issue, no solution" problem then a team that interfaces with Universities, pharmasuticals, medical equipment manufacturers, etc should be signaling to them they need to start researching/making something etc

If you talk to your rehab department and find a newer occupational therapist, they've been trained to look at things from a systems-and-how-they-interact perspective to bridge the gap between what someone wants to accomplish and what they have already accomplished. They've probably already grumbled about some of the inefficiencies you're looking to identify and tackle to themselves and could be open to collaborating to address them.

Chinese medicine focuses on the interconnectedness of the body and uses yin yang, and the five elements as a foundation for understanding. Organs has a relationship with each other similar to how our emotions has a relationship with each other.