The First Facility Management Blog

Healthcare facilities can benefit from the services offered by Trane, a business of Ingersoll Rand, through its Environment of Care (EoC) program. The company has found a strong tie between the physical environment of care and patient outcomes, patient and staff satisfaction, and financial performance of a healthcare organization. As such, the EoC program is focused on working with healthcare facility managers to identify conditions in their physical facilities that are taking away from the effectiveness of patient care.

In internal research conducted by Trane, 93% of the healthcare executives asked said the physical environment is “Important” or “Very Important” to the patient experience. Carolyn Clancy, MD, U.S. Director, Agency for Health Research and Quality, has stated, “As hospital leaders continue to seek ways to improve quality and reduce errors, it is critical that they look around their own physical environment with the goal of ensuring the hospital contributes to, rather than impedes, the process of healing.”

Laura Rygielski Preston, FACHE, Director of Healthcare for Trane, says, “We feel it is best to understand the culture of the healthcare organization in developing organizational recommendations. This is done through interviewing key stakeholders, building assessments, and collaborative discussions. A comprehensive solution is developed through analyzing many factors.”

When Trane conducts an EoC assessment for a facility, broad focus areas include:

• enhancing patient safety by reducing infection, risk, injuries from falls, and medical errors
• eliminating environmental stressors, such as noise, that negatively affect outcomes and staff performance
• reducing stress and promoting healing by making healthcare facilities more pleasant, comfortable, and supportive for patients and staff alike.

Trane has the expertise to optimize indoor environments with its broad portfolio of energy efficient heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems, building and contracting services, parts support, and advanced controls for buildings.

While some changes to facility operations may involve no- or low-cost strategies, improvements to a hospital’s physical environment are often candidates for performance contracting, a funding mechanism that is available through Trane. Examples of action that might be taken to improve a healthcare facility through the EoC program are:

• Installing more energy efficient lighting and electrical systems
• Optimizing central chilled water and steam boiler systems for improved operation, efficiency, and water conservation
• Upgrading heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and controls
• Increasing energy efficiency, effectiveness, and throughput of laundry operations

(Photos courtesy of Trane Commercial Systems)

Environmental Health & Engineering, Inc. (EH&E) recently launched a new Hospital Energy Performance service aimed at helping hospitals to improve their building systems performance and energy efficiency by 25% or more, with much of the savings linked to low cost modifications.

EH&E looks for low cost modifications to reduce energy use in healthcare facilities.

“Healthcare facilities are heavy energy users and are continually being modified to meet new requirements for equipment and services. Building environmental systems often become out of tune as a result. The emphasis in these facilities is placed on maintaining the environment, and optimal system efficiency is seldom addressed,” said Michael Della Barba, director of commissioning at EH&E, which is located in Needham, MA.

In describing the Hospital Energy Performance service, Della Barba continued, “We’re not approaching this as an expensive equipment replacement program, or a shortsighted energy reduction effort that negatively impacts the environment. We understand critical building systems, and simply make them work as they were intended. Energy efficiency (and in most cases, energy savings) is the natural result.”

EH&E’s energy optimization process takes place in three phases to allow the hospital to implement each in stages (measuring savings at each) and to strategically plan capital equipment upgrades to maximize return on investment (ROI).

• Phase I: Develop a building system performance profile. 
Define the building’s optimal operating strategy and identify the system(s) to be optimized, document all associated equipment, and review the system control sequences. System performance data is collected and analyzed to identify opportunities. This phase typically identifies low or no-cost actions to immediately improve performance (<1 year ROI), as well as issues that require some engineering investigation to further refine.
• Phase II: Perform engineering investigation and make recommendations. 
A more detailed engineering investigation with recommendations for improvement for more complex deficiencies. EH&E engineers work with the facility manager and operations staff to select specific items to undergo further investigation and engineering.
• Phase III: Correct deficiencies, analyze results, and recommend capital improvements. 
Prioritization and correction of those equipment and system deficiencies selected from Phase II. Can be prioritized to target individual zones, systems, or the entire building based on the projected ROI of the proposed improvements.

The center's informational touchscreen kiosk helps teach visitors about LEED.

The 72,264 square foot Parrish Healthcare Center at Port St. John, a service of Parrish Medical Center in Titusville, FL, was designed to highlight the belief that health and healing are best achieved when in balance with nature.  Surrounded by a 33.5 acre campus, including a 6.1 acre nature preserve, the Parrish Healthcare Center at Port St. John is the first in Florida to be awarded the prestigious LEED Silver certification. 

Among the criteria required for LEED certification is the demonstration of a commitment to educate the public about environmental sustainability. One way the center has selected to demonstrate that commitment is through the GreenTouchscreen kiosk designed by Quality Attributes Software. 

This innovative and customized kiosk is located in the main lobby of the center. Visitors to Parrish Healthcare Center just need to touch the screen and it comes to life. From the kiosk visitors can learn about the LEED rating system and the credits that were earned in order to achieve silver certification. A LEED checklist which explains how each credit was earned along with a green features map and a list of the benefits of building green can all be found with a simple touch of the screen.      

Without the GreenTouchscreen many of the building’s green features might otherwise go unnoticed. “The kiosk is a great way for Parrish Healthcare Center to inform the public about how environmental sustainability is integrated into the healing environment,” said Chris Fox, Parrish Healthcare Center at PSJ director. “PMC has long advocated that environments play an integral role in healing. Building green is just a natural extension of that belief.”

Parrish Healthcare Center is a full service outpatient center that has earned more procedure specific accreditations by the American College of Radiology (ACR) than any other Brevard County outpatient center in the areas of mammography, breast ultrasound, ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In addition to radiology services, the center includes physician offices, a sleep disorders center, outpatient rehabilitation, laboratory services, and an array of other testing such as bone density, positron emission tomography (PET), EMG/EKG, stress testing, echo-vascular testing, and holter monitoring.