Medical Construction & Design

SEP-OCT 2017

Medical Construction & Design (MCD) is the industry's leading source for news and information and reaches all disciplines involved in the healthcare construction and design process.

Issue link: https://mcdmag.epubxp.com/i/871544

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 34 of 78

30 Medical Construction & Design | SEPTEMBER /OCTOBER 2017 | MCDM AG.COM BY MICHAEL PUL ASKI & BILL REPICHOWSK YJ As the economics of healthcare undergo increasing pressure and uncertainty, hospitals are facing a greater-than-ever imperative to manage costs. Although energ y represents a small portion of a hospital's overall yearly operating costs, reducing utility expenditures can be a low-risk, high-yield and stable investment for the future. A recently completed renovation project at the University of Vermont Medical Center illustrates numerous innovations used to achieve signifi cant improvements in energ y effi ciency, as well as patient safety and comfort. The UVMMC Miller Building is a 180,000-square-foot, seven-story inpatient building with 128 beds. The renovated facility includes four inpatient fl oors of 32-single-occupancy medical- surgical, telemetry-capable rooms, which will allow the facility to increase its ratio of private rooms to 90 percent. Some of the new metrics for measuring energ y use, methodologies, systems analysis, design strategies and materials applied over the course of this project include: Targeting 100 Targeting 100! is a research project completed by the University of Washington's College of Built Environments. The project examined the effi ciency of two massing options for six regions across the United States to determine the best strategies for getting to an energ y use intensity of 100 KBtu/ sf/yr, nearly 60 percent better than the typical hospital. The results of the study show that achieving this aggressive EUI target is achievable. The biggest source of energ y loss in the building typically comes from "reheat" energ y. This is the energ y required to reheat air to an appropriate temperature at each terminal unit or patient room. The "reheat" energ y can consume over 40 percent of a hospital's energ y use, and can be largely eliminated by employing alternative mechanical strategies that decouple heating and cooling loads from the ventilation air supply. However, to use these systems, design teams should fi rst complete two tasks: 1) identify and reduce, where possible, the ENGINEERING GREEN Top emerging strategies to reduce hospital operating costs, utility expenditures State of Sustainability ISSUE FOCUS 72% Percentage of global survey respondents (healthcare organizations) that say brand, trust and reputation are driving sustainability — sustainabilityroadmap.org 76 percent of large hospitals use an economizer cycle, pulling in outside air for cooling. — eia.gov

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Medical Construction & Design - SEP-OCT 2017