imagePRO Market Pulse Series: Environmental, Social, and Governance initiatives in healthcare institutions
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The imagePro Market Pulse (iPMP) is a series of insights on the US radiology market provided by The MarkeTech Group.
The iPMP is a custom research initiative with our imagePRO™ panel of over 350 USA hospital-based imaging directors and managers. In this second series, we asked the imagePRO panel to share their plans for their next MRI purchase, their available budget, the vendor they are most likely to select, and the important factors in selecting an MRI vendor. All questions were single-select.
Importance of ESG Initiatives
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives are currently not a high priority for many US healthcare institutions. According to 49% of imagePRO panel members, ESG initiatives are not at all or somewhat important within their institutions. This sentiment is echoed in purchasing decisions for medical imaging solutions, where 57% estimate that vendors' ESG initiatives hold little to no importance.
ESG initiatives appear to be valued more at the institutional level than in specific purchasing decisions. While 21% of imagePRO panel members find ESG initiatives very or extremely important for their institutions overall, this figure drops to only 13% when considering medical imaging purchases.
These results suggest that ESG initiatives are not yet deeply integrated into the thinking of Healthcare Professionals. This also indicates a top-down approach is likely necessary, where healthcare institution managers need to actively drive the implementation and acceptance of ESG principles throughout their organizations, in order to see ESG initiatives becoming important at the department level.
Despite the currently low importance of vendors' ESG initiatives in purchasing decisions, their influence is likely to increase within the next 5 years. A significant 46% of imagePRO members agree or strongly agree that radiology vendors’ ESG initiatives will carry significant weight in purchase decisions for medical imaging solutions within this timeframe. While 29% neither disagree nor agree with this statement, 14% disagree and 11% strongly disagree.
These results indicate that even if radiology vendors’ current ESG initiatives do not significantly influence today's product purchases, their ongoing efforts are likely to yield results in the near future. Medical technology vendors should continue to pursue their ESG initiatives (or initiate them if they haven't already) to capitalize on this anticipated shift in importance.
Top ESG priorities and challenges
Top Environmental priority
Waste management (45%) and energy efficiency (23%) are the current top two environmental priorities in US healthcare institutions according to the imagePRO panel members. 11% prioritize green building practices, 8% focus on sustainable procurement, and 3% on water usage. 9% of the institutions have no environmental sustainability priority.
Top Social priority
Patient care and safety are the top social priority for 80% of healthcare institutions. While this result is unsurprising and reinforces the core mission of these organizations to serve patients, the focus on other social priorities is considerably lower. Six percent of US healthcare institutions prioritize community engagement or diversity and inclusion. Notably, only 4% emphasize employee welfare as a primary social initiative. This is somewhat unexpected and arguably should be higher, given that staff shortages and turnover remain critical issues in healthcare. Prioritizing employee welfare could significantly improve staff retention and loyalty
Top Governance priority
Compliance and ethics are the top governance priority for 36% of US healthcare institutions. Other important governance initiatives include leadership and accountability for 20%, risk management for 18%, and patient privacy for 17%.
ESG challenges
The primary challenge hindering the implementation of ESG initiatives at healthcare institutions today is limited resources and funding, cited by 43% of imagePRO panel members. Beyond this significant obstacle, stakeholder engagement, data collection and management, and a lack of clear goals and metrics are also key challenges, reported by 18%, 14%, and 14% respectively.
Vendor role in Environmental, Social, and Governance initiatives
When it comes to MedTech vendors, their ESG initiatives currently have little influence on purchasing decisions, but this is expected to increase (see results in “Importance of ESG Initiatives”). Nevertheless, the top expectations of healthcare providers and institutions from vendors are to offer sustainable design and manufacturing of equipment (31% of imagePRO panel members), to develop energy-efficient equipment (26%), to reduce waste and improve circular economy (19%), to reduce the use of hazardous materials (12%), and to develop carbon footprint reduction initiatives. Only 1% of imagePRO panel members expect vendors to focus on water conservation as their top environmental priority.
These expectations from vendors are aligned with healthcare institutions’ top environmental priorities, with waste management (45%) and energy efficiency (23%) currently ranking as their top two (see “Top ESG priorities”).
In the radiology department, contrast media and pharmaceutical companies are perceived as having the greatest potential to contribute to ESG initiatives, according to 29% of imagePRO panel members. Suppliers of radiology accessories and consumables follow closely at 26%, while large equipment OEMs are ranked third (19%).
These findings underscore the current importance of waste management for healthcare institutions. Contrast media and consumable companies can significantly contribute by offering solutions that minimize waste and enhance the circular economy. While large OEMs have a role to play in improving energy efficiency, this aspect does not appear to be currently as high a priority as waste reduction within radiology departments.
Do not hesitate to contact us for deeper analysis on this iPMP series – the imagePRO panel can be segmented by 49 different variables including hospital type, current installed base, and many other demographic factors!
