Healthcare Energy Savings and Sustainability 

Updated on May 8, 2022
KikiDikmen GetChoice
Kiki Dikmen

As far back as 20 years ago, reports cited hospital electricity and natural gas costs combined at nearly $2.00 per square foot. Two decades later, utility costs now have the potential of crippling organizations. Weather and world events have brought on record-high inflation which can create economic chaos across the bottom line. Kiki Dikmen is CEO of GetChoice!, the nationwide leader in energy, telecom, and utility management solutions across all industries including healthcare and medical product & service businesses. Quite simply, they help healthcare institutions and medical-related companies find ways to manage utility costs, even save money, through proactive protocols. Below are highlights from our conversation. 

1.   Tell us about your company, GetChoice! We help healthcare and medical industry companies from hospitals and other patient-care facilities to medical service providers, technology and device manufacturers save money on energy costs. Our solutions help them automate, manage, predict, control cost-efficiencies and measure their sustainability initiatives. Ultimately, they become empowered by gaining deeper insights into their consumption and usage patterns with a greater understanding of pricing trends, infrastructure requirements, and renewable energy progress. Utility infrastructure management create capabilities to monitor, negotiate and validate our client’s portfolio, saving them substantial time and money, and sometimes creating new revenue streams when there are opportunities to sell power back to the grid. 

2. Why is it so important that hospitals, medical device manufacturers and other companies servicing our industry find ways to manage and save on utility and telecom procurement?  

It’s essential for organizations to economize their operational expenses to have bigger budgets for advancing core competencies of patient care, innovative device manufacturing, software and technology, and research & development. They can protect their bottom line and manage price risk of electricity and natural gas through systems (even AI platforms) that provide continuous transparency and recommendations.

3. What role is sustainability and renewable energy playing in the healthcare industry?
They are both very important because more and more stakeholders are seeking investments and alliances with companies who have made this a priority.While most common use has been via renewable energy credits, now there is also a shift towards co-gen and distributed solar. There are also common-sense energy-savings that can be developed into best practices for managers and employees to follow. Steps to take like turning off lights, unplugging not-in-use devices and machines, calibrating hot water temperatures, deploying smart thermostats, and other tips that are known but are not always top-of-mind can have a big impact on costs and usage when they are implemented. 

4.  Why should healthcare industry companies pay attention to ESG? 

ESG, Environmental Social Governance, has become increasingly important in attracting investors, partner-alliances, employees and customers, as a non-financial factor toward assessing brand and equity value, risk and growth potential. Following various ESG guidelines and regulation on reducing the number of paper invoices or a digital process or app for viewing utility spend and usage is critical as well as building programs to strengthen outreach in their respective communities. Our firm as a utility infrastructure management company provides a software that automates the output of carbon footprint reporting and this visibility has changed the trajectory for many companies in this area.

5. How can our readers learn more about GetChoice!

Visit us at www.GetChoice.com and on LinkedIn

The Editorial Team at Healthcare Business Today is made up of skilled healthcare writers and experts, led by our managing editor, Daniel Casciato, who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We offer readers access to fresh health, medicine, science, and technology developments and the latest in patient news, emphasizing how these developments affect our lives.