Features — 2011

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12/2/11	HEALing Communities: Building Wellness Zones in the Port Towns of Maryland Where we live, work and play matters to our health. People tend to live healthier lifestyles when their community supports and promotes healthy living. We can often see correlations between where people live — right down to their ZIP codes — and the incidences of preventable chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure.
11/23/11	Urban Oasis Flourishes in Oregon with Help from Kaiser Permanente A vibrant garden grows in an inner-urban, mixed-income housing development in North Portland, Ore. It is part of the community’s Village Gardens project, supported by Janus Youth Programs, with help from Kaiser Permanente, one of many community partners providing financial support and assistance.
11/17/11	Students and Volunteers with Kōkua Hawai‘i Foundation and Kaiser Permanente Plant Legacy Orchard at ‘Aikahi Elementary More than 500 students, teachers and volunteers with Kōkua Hawai‘i Foundation and Kaiser Permanente Hawaii today planted a Legacy Orchard at ‘Aikahi Elementary to commemorate the school’s focus on farm-to-school education. The Legacy Orchard is a partnership between Kaiser Permanente and Kōkua Hawai‘i Foundation and its ‘AINA in Schools farm-to-school program, supporting environmental education in local schools and communities, and connecting children to their land, waters and food in order to grow a healthier future for Hawaii.
11/8/11	Kaiser Permanente Makes Great Strides in Sustainable Food for Health Sustainable food — how to grow it, how to purchase it, and how to make it more available and accessible — has become a hot topic in the national media, crystallizing into what many are calling a “food movement.” That movement is a natural fit for health care organizations such as Kaiser Permanente who’ve sought to make the connection between healthy food, healthy people and healthy communities.
11/4/11	Local Motion! Kaiser Permanente Teams with SolarWorld for Bike Delivery of Solar Panels to New Hospital You may have seen bike messengers delivering pizza and flowers, but how about solar panels the size of a sheet of plywood? That’s just what you’ll see on Monday, Nov. 14, when a few of SolarWorld’s panels are delivered by bicycle from the SolarWorld factory warehouse to Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center, now under construction in Hillsboro, Ore. The 102-kilowatt solar system of 468 panels will be installed on the parking garage next to the hospital.
11/1/11	Kaiser Permanente Southern California Opens New Green Medical Center in Ontario The Kaiser Permanente Ontario Medical Center opened its doors at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 1, bringing more jobs to the Inland Empire and expanding Kaiser Permanente’s convenient health care offerings and sustainable building design. Designed with the patient in mind, this spacious 386,000 square foot hospital combines cutting-edge technology with a peaceful, patient-centered atmosphere.
10/24/11	Kaiser Permanente Named No. 1 Green-IT Organization by Computerworld Kaiser Permanente announced today that it ranks No.1 on IDG’s Computerworld magazine Top 12 List of Green-IT Organizations for 2011, a ranking that considers applicants from many industries. Kaiser Permanente was the only national health care provider to receive this rating and is recognized for its implementation of green IT practices that reduce waste, carbon dioxide emissions, energy use and the use of toxic chemicals.
10/13/11	Kaiser Permanente Hosts ‘Food for Health Forum’ Featuring Experts in Sustainable Food and Environmental Health Wholesome Wave, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing access to fresh, locally grown food, announced Tuesday that it is expanding its incentive programs, thanks to support from Kaiser Permanente, in as many as 30 farmers markets across the country.
10/11/11	Kaiser Permanente and Wholesome Wave Collaborate to Make Farmers Markets More Accessible to Underserved Communities Kaiser Permanente and Preston Maring, MD, will host the second annual “Food for Health Forum” in San Francisco on Oct. 15. The event will bring together physicians, health care leaders and sustainable food experts from around the country to galvanize a growing healthy food movement within health care.
9/6/11	In Utero Exposure to BPA May Adversely Affect Male Genital Development In utero exposure to Bisphenol-A may adversely affect male genital development, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published online in the journal Birth Defects Research.
9/2/11	HEALing Neighborhoods Across America: A Collaborative Approach to Building Healthy Communities Kaiser Permanente has long recognized the connection between health and place — maintaining good health is easier when people are surrounded by healthy choices in their schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods. Yet, building healthy surroundings for people is not an effort that can be led by one individual or organization alone. It is a collaborative effort that must involve the whole community.
8/31/11	Kaiser Permanente Hawaii Donates More Than $122,000 to Six Local Community Organizations Kaiser Permanente Hawaii today announced more than $122,000 in grant funding to six local community organizations: Peoples Advocacy for Trails Hawaii, Honolulu Theater for Youth, Kanu Hawaii, Kahikolu ‘Ohana Hale ‘O Waianae, North Kohala Community Resources Center, and the Hawaii COPD Coalition. Grant funding supports healthy eating, active living, and respiratory health initiatives in Hawaii.
8/17/11	Trash Talk: Kaiser Permanente Sets Ambitious Target to Reduce Waste Committed to reducing its impact on the environment, Kaiser Permanente has set an ambitious target for reducing the waste it produces. By 2015, Kaiser Permanente aims to reuse, recycle, or compost at least 40 percent of its waste system-wide, diverting all of this material from landfills.
8/12/11	New Hospital Will be Home for Kaiser Permanente’s 21st Century Health Care State and city officials joined representatives from Kaiser Permanente to commemorate construction of the new 149-bed, state-of-the-art Kaiser Permanente Redwood City hospital with an official groundbreaking ceremony. The ceremony took place on a two-acre plot on Veterans Boulevard at Walnut Street, where foundation work has already started, and where construction on the structure itself is slated to begin this fall.
7/20/11	Kaiser Permanente Becomes Founding Member of California Freshworks Fund Continuing its commitment to increasing access to healthy fruits and vegetables in low-income communities, Kaiser Permanente is proud to be a founding member of the California FreshWorks Fund, a unique public-private partnership loan fund created to bring healthy food retail to underserved California communities. California FreshWorks Fund was among the models included in Michelle Obama's announcement today on bringing healthy food choices to communities across the United States.
6/28/11	Kaiser Permanente’s West Los Angeles Medical Center Earns EPA ENERGY STAR® Certification Kaiser Permanente’s West Los Angeles Medical Center has received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR® certification, the national symbol for superior energy efficiency and environmental protection. This signifies that the building’s energy performance rates in the top 25 percent of facilities nationwide.
6/14/11	Kaiser Permanente Orange County Awarded LEED Building Certification The seven-story parking structure for the new Kaiser Permanente Orange County Anaheim Medical Center, was recently awarded the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Silver Certification under the New Construction Projects rating system. LEED is an internationally recognized green building certification system of the U.S. Green Building Council for designing, constructing and operating the world’s greenest, most energy efficient and high-performing buildings.
6/2/11	Kaiser Permanente Ohio to Sponsor Weekly Farmers Market at 9th Street Pier With its locally grown produce and a great location for downtown office workers, the 2011 North Coast Harbor Farmers Market is about to get underway — proudly sponsored by Kaiser Permanente Ohio. The market will attract employees, residents and visitors in search of great food choices that promote agricultural awareness. Located on the North Coast Harbor at the E. 9th Street Pier, it’s the perfect place to shop for groceries and enjoy a relaxing lakefront lunch. Eating healthy, nutritious food is part of Kaiser Permanente’s message to our members, and sponsorship of this market is a perfect fit.
6/1/11	Kaiser Permanente Names Three Finalists in Hospital Design Competition Transparent roofs that produce energy and collect rainwater; interactive walls patients could use to Skype with family or physicians; and a pneumatic pharmacy distribution system that delivers medications to patients’ rooms, were just a few of the ideas presented by architecture and engineering firms competing last week in Kaiser Permanente’s Small Hospital, Big Idea competition.
5/19/11	Five Questions for … Keith Fabisiak, MD, Pediatrician, Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center Keith Fabisiak, MD, believes that growing fruits and vegetables at home creates a foundation for a lifetime of good health. That�s why the pediatrician encourages his patients and their families to plant backyard gardens, even if they have limited space.
5/13/11	Parental Exposure to BPA During Pregnancy Associated with Decreased Birth Weight in Offspring Parental exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) during pregnancy is associated with decreased birth weight of offspring, compared with offspring from families without parental BPA exposure in the workplace, according to Kaiser Permanente researchers.
5/13/11	Kaiser Permanente Names Finalists in Hospital Design Competition After reviewing more than 100 design concepts from architects, design firms, students, health care companies and engineering and construction firms throughout the U.S. and the world, Kaiser Permanente announced today nine finalists in its “Small Hospital, Big Idea” competition.
5/5/11	Kaiser Permanente Awards Approximately $7.7 Million in Community Benefit Grants Including Community Garden for Fresh, Local Food Kaiser Permanente, one of the country’s largest not-for-profit health care organizations, announced today that it has funded 217 grants nationwide, totaling approximately $7.7 million in the first quarter of 2011.
5/4/11	Health Information Technology Can Create Significant Environmental Benefits An analysis by Kaiser Permanente shows that use of health information technology can dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and produce other important environmental savings. The study, published in the May issue of Health Affairs, estimates that electronic health records could lower carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 1.7 million tons across the entire U.S. population.
4/25/11	Kaiser Permanente Recognized by Computerworld as a 2011 Honors Laureate International Data Group’s Computerworld Honors Program recently announced Kaiser Permanente as a 2011 Laureate. The annual award program honors visionary applications of information technology promoting positive social, economic and educational change. Kaiser Permanente is being recognized for its 2010 National Quality Conference, which provided physicians and staff with a virtual forum to share effective best practices around quality issues in the health care system. A more economical platform, a virtual confrence also aligns with the company's green initiative by reducing the travel and paper consumption of traditional conferences.
4/22/11	Why the Health Care Sector Needs to Care about the Environment: Voices from CleanMed Why should the health care sector care about the environment? We posed the question to several attendees at the 2011 CleanMed conference, an annual gathering of physicians, researchers, architects and health care leaders focused on a common mission of accelerating the sector’s commitment to environmental sustainability.
4/19/11	Kaiser Permanente Pediatrician Writes ‘Nature Prescriptions’ for Youth Pediatrician Charles Owyang, MD, of Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara (Calif.) has been telling his young patients to turn over a new leaf — literally. Dr. Owyang has been writing “nature prescriptions” — advising that patients visit a park — to every child 12 and younger who comes in for a checkup. That equates to 135 prescriptions over the past two months. The pediatrician even uses a special prescription pad for the nature prescriptions.
4/14/11	Kaiser Permanente Southern California and Goodwill Southern California Reduce Carbon Footprint Carrying everything from outdated cell phones to unwanted computers, Kaiser Permanente employees are heading to work determined to reduce their carbon footprint. Goodwill Southern California will be standing by with 24-foot trucks to properly recycle or dispose of the electronic waste, keeping it out of our landfills.
4/7/11	Kaiser Permanente Wins Awards for Commitment to Environmental Health Kaiser Permanente facilities and regions across the country received 17 awards in recognition of efforts to reduce waste and prevent pollution. Kaiser Permanente received the awards Wednesday, April 6 from Practice Greenhealth at CleanMed 2011, a global conference for environmental leaders in health care.
3/14/11	Mayor Vidal and the Colorado Rapids ‘Kick Off’ Second Season of Denver’s Bike Sharing System Colorado non-profit Denver Bike Sharing, with the help of Mayor Guillermo (Bill) V. Vidal and Colorado Rapids players Conor Casey (major league soccer Cup MVP) and Omar Cummings, launched Denver B-cycle’s second season today with a press event at the Denver Public Library B-cycle station. Denver B-cycle’s second season kicks off with improvements to the system and a limited-time $49 annual membership special offer that lasts through Earth Day, April 22.
3/10/11	Kaiser Permanente Wins Awards for Solar Initiative and Sustainability Scorecard from Environmental Business Journal and Climate Change Business Journal Kaiser Permanente won two 2010 Business Achievement Awards in the “Project Merit Award” category from two publications. The Environmental Business Journal recognized the organization for the development of its Sustainability Scorecard for the health care industry. The Climate Change Business Journal honored Kaiser Permanente for its solar power initiative, one of the largest sustainable energy programs in U.S. health care that calls for photovoltaic arrays at 15 buildings in 2011.
2/15/11	Joel Salatin, Well-Known Farmer, Brings His Sustainable Food Message to the Hospital Joel Salatin gained fame as a passionate advocate for sustainable food and farming in Michael Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma and then in the movie Food Inc. In January, Salatin paid a visit to Kaiser Permanente’s Oakland Medical Center, where he toured the weekly farmers market and spoke to physicians, staff and other leaders in the sustainable food movement about the links between health, local food and sustainable agriculture.
1/21/11	Kaiser Permanente Hawaii Plants Seeds for Healthy Future Kaiser Permanente Hawaii is promoting healthy living with a $5,000 grant to the Kokua Hawaii Foundation to support the AINA In Schools program. The pilot initiative involves 10 Oahu schools and focuses on environmental stewardship, childhood obesity prevention, and efforts to link Hawaii’s farmers to institutional markets.
1/20/11	Kaiser Permanente to Power California Facilities with Fuel Cells Committed to improving the health of the communities it serves, Kaiser Permanente will deploy four megawatts of solid oxide fuel-cell generated power in a deal that will put fuel-cell generators at seven facilities in California by the end of this year. The agreement with Bloom Energy, which makes fuel cell energy servers, expands Kaiser Permanente’s commitment to using sustainable energy sources.
1/7/11	Kaiser Permanente Hospital Goes Live with Solar Power Kaiser Permanente’s Santa Clara Medical Center has gone live with solar power, becoming one of the country’s first major medical centers to receive a significant amount of its energy from the sun.
1/4/11	Kaiser Permanente Hawaii Helps Brighten the New Year for Many Maui Families with ‘Fresh for All Program’ Kaiser Permanente Hawaii today presented $10,000 to the Maui Food Bank to support the resh for All Program, which purchases fresh produce from local farmers and distributes it to needy families.

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