Leslie LaPointe APRN, MSN, CPNP Lawrence & Memorial Hospital

Green is our favorite color.  For years now Lawrence & Memorial Hospital has been making great strides in many key areas to minimize the hospital’s impact on the environment, including doubling its recycling of paper and cardboard, and dramatically reducing hazardous chemicals and water usage.

In 2009, Practice Greenhealth, a national group that monitors the efforts of all hospitals to protect their environment, honored L&M for a successful program to reduce and, ultimately, eliminate mercury, which is found in certain types of hospital equipment.

Another example of L&M’s improvements is the replacement of traditional mops with microfiber flat mops. With the new system, you just fill up one bucket and you have a mop for every single room, so you’re using only 25 percent of the water and the chemicals. It’s also better for infection prevention because you’re using a clean mop for every room.

In 2010, what better way than a garden as a new effort to truly go green, and we’re asking your help. Gardens are less costly to maintain and use less water than lawns. The garden will provide a peaceful place for patients, their families and visitors to heal or just sit and appreciate the beautiful landscape. Our plan is to create a garden for four seasons. We have plants that even will bring interest in the winter. Many people have generously volunteered to build the garden. We’re now looking for the funds or donations of the hardscape and plants. We plan on a patio space using pavers about 12 feet by 12 feet with four benches. We even found some great benches made of recycled products. Two other benches will be tucked away for a little privacy or meditation.

If you would like to help, we are selling the bricks as a fundraiser. Each brick will have 3 lines with 16 characters per line for your inscription. We can email you a form for the “Brick Walk”. For more information, call Graham Gavert in the Development Office at 860.442.0711, x2240 or email him at ggavert@lmhosp.org. We also have opportunities to donate 4 benches, a fountain, the patio, the mulch, and more. We would be happy to acknowledge if someone graciously donated the funds for these items.

Sincerely,
Leslie LaPointe
APRN, MSN, CPNP
Member, L&M Go Green Committee
Chairwoman for the Healing Garden Project

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