Green Hospital Implementation for Sustainable and Resilient Health Systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Scoping Review

Introduction. Health care both protects population health and drives environmental harm through energy use, waste, and greenhouse-gas emissions. The Green Hospital concept links environmental sustainability with hospital resilience, but evidence from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is fragmented. Objective. To map evidence on Green Hospital implementation in LMICs; identify enablers and barriers; characterize measurement approaches; quantify reporting of health, economic, and equity outcomes; and synthesize a conceptual framework of pathways from governance to population health. Methods. Scoping review following PRISMA-ScR, registered on the Open Science Framework (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/F2BR5). PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and ScienceDirect were searched for English-language peer-reviewed empirical studies published from January 2009 to October 2025 from countries classified by the World Bank (FY2025) as low-, lower-middle-, or upper-middle-income. Screening and charting were performed in duplicate. Results. Twenty-nine studies were included, concentrated in lower-middle-income settings (20/29), Sub-Saharan Africa (11/29), and South Asia (7/29). Implementation clustered in waste management, water and sanitation, energy efficiency, and green infrastructure, with limited resilience integration. Leading enablers were leadership commitment, regulatory support, and institutional awareness; leading barriers were financial constraints, weak technical capacity, fragmented governance, and non-standardized indicators. Life-cycle assessment and multi-criteria decision-making predominated. Three gaps were quantified: one study reported a population health outcome, and only as a cross-sectional association; three reported cost data and none a formal economic evaluation; none disaggregated findings by occupational group, rurality or ownership. Conclusion. The literature maps a Green Hospital agenda concentrated in foundational environmental domains and weakly connected to resilience-oriented governance and performance systems. Because studies were predominantly cross-sectional, pathways from intervention to resilience and health are presented as hypothesized propositions requiring testing. The next priority is to align harmonized environmental key performance indicators with hospital accreditation.

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Journal
Asia Pacific Journal of Health Management
Published
2026-10-27
DOI
https://doi.org/10.24083/apjhm.v21i2.5985
Primary Topic
Healthcare Facilities Design and Sustainability
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article
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article

Green Hospital Implementation for Sustainable and Resilient Health Systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Scoping Review

Dumilah Ayuningtyas, Farida Murtiani, Amelia Marisa, Annisa Ayu Lestari et al.
2 links
Asia Pacific Journal of Health Management
Healthcare Facilities Design and Sustainability
article

Green Hospital Implementation for Sustainable and Resilient Health Systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Scoping Review

Dumilah Ayuningtyas, Farida Murtiani, Amelia Marisa, Annisa Ayu Lestari, Ba’da Febriani, Fatimah Fatimah, Zakiah Zakiah
article en

Abstract

Introduction. Health care both protects population health and drives environmental harm through energy use, waste, and greenhouse-gas emissions. The Green Hospital concept links environmental sustainability with hospital resilience, but evidence from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is fragmented. Objective. To map evidence on Green Hospital implementation in LMICs; identify enablers and barriers; characterize measurement approaches; quantify reporting of health, economic, and equity outcomes; and synthesize a conceptual framework of pathways from governance to population health. Methods. Scoping review following PRISMA-ScR, registered on the Open Science Framework (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/F2BR5). PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and ScienceDirect were searched for English-language peer-reviewed empirical studies published from January 2009 to October 2025 from countries classified by the World Bank (FY2025) as low-, lower-middle-, or upper-middle-income. Screening and charting were performed in duplicate. Results. Twenty-nine studies were included, concentrated in lower-middle-income settings (20/29), Sub-Saharan Africa (11/29), and South Asia (7/29). Implementation clustered in waste management, water and sanitation, energy efficiency, and green infrastructure, with limited resilience integration. Leading enablers were leadership commitment, regulatory support, and institutional awareness; leading barriers were financial constraints, weak technical capacity, fragmented governance, and non-standardized indicators. Life-cycle assessment and multi-criteria decision-making predominated. Three gaps were quantified: one study reported a population health outcome, and only as a cross-sectional association; three reported cost data and none a formal economic evaluation; none disaggregated findings by occupational group, rurality or ownership. Conclusion. The literature maps a Green Hospital agenda concentrated in foundational environmental domains and weakly connected to resilience-oriented governance and performance systems. Because studies were predominantly cross-sectional, pathways from intervention to resilience and health are presented as hypothesized propositions requiring testing. The next priority is to align harmonized environmental key performance indicators with hospital accreditation.

Asia Pacific Journal of Health Management
University of Indonesia (ID)
Good health and well-being, Responsible consumption and production, Climate action, Sustainable cities and communities, Reduced inequalities
Openalex Percentile: Top 6%
Healthcare Facilities Design and Sustainability
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