Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management, recently introduced at ASHE 2013 its new HealthBuildings Risk Assessment program. The comprehensive program helps hospital stakeholders understand and prioritise the risks associated with the facility, allowing them to increase efficiency and extend the lifecycle of the hospital infrastructure.
In the HealthBuildings assessment, a team of professional engineers and experts look at a facility’s complete critical infrastructure including mechanical, building management system (BMS), electrical, data centre power and cooling systems, and security technology. The assessment provides a detailed, documented roadmap of the risks based on multiple impact levels, such as the effect on patients and the probability of occurrence. It then provides suggestions on the best ways to mitigate these issues and the associated costs, allowing hospital leadership to prioritise and create a performance improvement plan that will result in a safer hospital.
“With the average U.S. hospital being 27 years old and comprising thousands of different components, it’s important to ensure hospital buildings are safe and have the ability to offer uninterrupted care for the long term,” said James Winstead, director, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Schneider Electric. “Schneider Electric’s comprehensive HealthBuildings Risk Assessment program and related services can help mitigate risk and plan for the future, creating a safer and more efficient hospital that aligns with CAPEX and OPEX priorities.”
Schneider Electric offers several other programs that leverage the assessment findings for planning, execution and measurement capabilities in specific areas, including mechanical, BMS, electrical, data centre and security systems. These offerings include:
- HealthPower Infrastructure Program: This program includes an assessment of the electrical system, which identifies and mitigates risk factors associated with the safety, operation, maintenance and regulatory compliance of the electrical system to help ensure safe, reliable and continuous power. It identifies issues including environmental conditions, code violations, and outdated workplace safety requirements that could cause future equipment malfunction and compromise power system reliability.
- HealthIT Infrastructure Program: Analyses the hospital’s data centre, including current and future capacity requirements for data in terms of power and cooling infrastructure, capacity needs and operations. This assessment helps identify excessive load conditions, ineffective backup power, and single points of failure that can compromise uptime. Best practice recommendations are provided to achieve high availability, manage capacity and maximise energy efficiency.
- HealthMechanical Infrastructure Program: Includes a tour of the facility, inspection of mechanical system drawings and documentation, physical inspection of HVAC mechanical equipment, inspection of maintenance records, review of alarm logs, and an in-depth inspection of the BMS and its current condition. This assessment ensures that the mechanical systems are functioning efficiently.
- HealthSecurity Infrastructure Program: Establishes a baseline on how the security department utilises its existing technology and operations to support the service levels required by the hospital, to determine functional and performance requirements and the best possible utilisation of existing technology and systems. Additionally, the assessment recommends new technology and solutions to increase operational efficiency.
As part of these programs, once an assessment is complete a plan is put into action to address and prioritise deficiencies and to comply with codes and standards. Finally, a system engineer will review the maintenance results and findings, analyse operational issues, review the programs implemented and develop recommendations for improvement.