VHA Inc. and Novation Receive Champion for Change Award from Practice Greenhealth

IRVING, Texas, June 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- VHA Inc. and Novation have received the 2015 Champion for Change Award from Practice Greenhealth for their collaborative efforts toward greening their internal operations and helping their members improve their environmental footprint. Practice Greenhealth is the nation's leading health care resource that promotes environmental stewardship while improving patient safety and outcomes.

"We are proud to receive this award from Practice Greenhealth for our internal sustainability efforts as well as the specialized programs and support we provide to our members to help them meet their goals in this area," said Terri Scannell, director of corporate citizenship and sustainability for VHA.

"Sustainability efforts are a concern that spans every aspect of a health system," said Brent Gee, Novation's senior director program services. "VHA and Novation will continue to collaboratively support those efforts through our contracts and advisory services that help hospitals meet their goals for sustainability throughout their care delivery settings."

Some of the key sustainability initiatives supported by VHA and Novation include:

• Environmentally Preferred Purchasing Program to help members meet their sustainability goals in a cost-effective manner
• Leading Practice Blueprints for members that provide a roadmap for implementing a variety of sustainability initiatives including energy conservation, waste reduction, renewable energy, greening the OR, eliminating Styrofoam and cultural alignment of sustainability goals
• Energy Solutions portfolio which enables up to a 30% conservation in annual energy consumption for member health systems
• Reprocessing contracts that helped members and affiliates save more than $86 million and divert 3.3 million tons out of landfills in 2014
• Attaining LEED Silver certification for VHA and Novation's corporate facility located in Irving, TX

About VHA Inc.
Effective April 1, 2015, VHA, the national health care network of not-for-profit hospitals, and UHC, the alliance of the nation's leading academic medical centers, combined into a single organization. The combined organization includes Novation, the health care services company they already jointly own. The new entity is the largest member-owned health care company in the country and is dedicated to leading health care innovation, creating knowledge and fostering collaboration to help our members thrive. The company serves more than 5,200 health system members and affiliates as well as 118,000 non-acute health care customers. Members range from independent, community-based health care organizations to large, integrated systems and academic medical centers, and it represents more than $50 billion in annual purchasing volume. Headquarters are in Irving, Texas, with locations in Chicago and other cities across the United States. A new name for the combined organization will be announced in Jan. 2016.

For more information, visit vha.com, uhc.edu and novationco.com. Follow us on Twitter (@VHAInc, @UHC_edu and @NovationNews).

About Novation, Recipient of the Ethisphere Institute's Ethics Inside Certification
Novation is the nation's leading health care services company, focused on revolutionizing operational performance for more than 100,000 members and affiliates of VHA Inc., UHC, Children's Hospital Association and Provista LLC. Novation's progressive approach to cost performance, data and intelligence, and integrated advisory solutions helps health care providers envision and advance new models of cost-effective, high-quality care. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Novation is committed to the highest standards of ethical behavior and twice has been honored with the Ethisphere Institute's coveted Ethics Inside^® Certification, and has been named four years consecutively to Ethisphere's World's Most Ethical Companies list. To learn more about Novation, please visit novationco.com and follow @NovationNews on Twitter.

About Practice Greenhealth:
Practice Greenhealth is the nation's leading health care community that empowers its members to increase their efficiencies and environmental stewardship while improving patient safety and care through tools, best practices and knowledge. To learn more about Practice Greenhealth visit www.practicegreenhealth.org.

SOURCE VHA Inc.