The Building Doctor’s Green Treatment for Community Hospitals

By: Susan Haifleigh, Director of Sustainability Solutions, VFA, Inc.

Susan Haifleigh, Director of Sustainability Solutions, VFA, Inc. Courtesy of VFA, Inc.

It might seem strange from the perspective of anyone working in the healthcare industry, but at VFA, we think of ourselves as ‘building doctors’; instead of people, our patients are buildings. We schedule checkups, and through those checkups we extend the life and quality of those buildings through preventive maintenance.

The extent of our “checkup” experience is vast; last year VFA assessed more than 450 million square feet of facilities.  Our expert mechanical, electrical and architectural engineers are trained to view projects objectively, given that we do not provide design or implementation of our recommendations.  VFA then takes the assessment further by providing clients with the necessary data to understand their portfolios, and to plan for future needs accordingly.

Condition information enables the hospital to understand what is necessary to maintain and improve its buildings- both in terms of funding and actual maintenance requirements.  Decision support software then assists in storing that information and creating and developing effective short and long-term capital plans.  The idea is to go beyond day-to-day operations and justify capital investments with reliable data.  The hospital facilities departments need to be able to provide reasoning behind the need for replacing an elevator or repairing the roof, for example, because they are competing with so many different departments and initiatives.

It was a natural progression for VFA to move into the area of applying this same expertise to sustainability, assisting our clients who are interested in practical solutions for implementing green programs and measuring the impact on their facilities. 

Hospitals are increasingly implementing green programs to improve the performance of their facilities. Courtesy of VFA, Inc.

VFA concentrates on five major areas of sustainability including:
1) Energy Efficiency – including lighting, controls, efficient equipment, etc.
2) Water Conservation – plumbing fixtures, irrigation, storm water, wastewater
3) Indoor Environmental Quality – ventilation, moisture control, control systems
4) Site Sustainability – landscape, pest management, building envelope, heat islands
5) Materials and Construction – waste, recycling, green cleaning, alternative materials

By looking for opportunities to become more “green” in each of these categories, healthcare facilities have demonstrated not only increased efficiencies but also improvements in market share, occupancy rate, patient satisfaction, lower staff turnover, decreased patient transfer, and increase in patient sleep quality.

At one Boston hospital, we’ve been able to put our ‘building doctor’ expertise to work on some very specific projects which directly impact both the bottom line and the overall energy efficiency of their facilities.  For instance, by recommending the replacement of their 80-horsepower domestic water pumps with a new variable frequency drive (VFD) system with variable controls, the hospital was able to reduce run time from 24/7 to variable runs at 15-horsepower as needed. The estimated cost savings over a year period was approximately $17,000/year, which equated to a two and a half-year payback.  The hospital is currently tagging the projects which will provide a two to two and a half-year payback and assist them in reducing direct costs.

In addition to these more traditional green projects, the hospital also looked for projects which increase productivity.  In one case, we recommended the replacement of the old medical vacuum system serving the surgical suites.  The existing system was operating at 120 decibels, which is much higher than warranted for auditory comfort.  By replacing the system, adding controls and stopping leaks, the hospital reduced the overall sound rating to below 30 decibels, which dramatically improved physician and staff comfort in the surgical suites.

Because the single largest challenge to investing in “greening a facility” is access to capital, the need to create a viable and defensible implementation plan for sustainability becomes the cornerstone of any effort.  A key ingredient of such a plan is the incorporation of “green options” into the capital planning process.  The complexity of these decisions can be greatly reduced by tracking costs and renewals in such a way that traditional facilities managers can plan for both maintenance and operations while meeting their new green goals.  VFA facility software incorporates a capital planning module which has allowed our customers to create definitive green projects with costs and benefits while doing their traditional planning, and to forecast the impact of those projects.

One of the unexpected outcomes we have observed of our client’s pursuit of sustainability initiatives is the increase in cross-team partnership.  People who might not normally interact in their day-to-day jobs are coming together within “green teams” to gather information and to make policy decisions which transcend their particular areas of expertise and speak to the broader internal hospital community.  Administrators are working with janitors, who are working with physicians, who are seeing their patients’ needs in a whole new way.  The holistic nature of the decisions and questions that must be asked when you look at the whole building portfolio from a sustainable perspective forces the crossing of traditional boundaries and results in new connections.  In addition, private-public partnership efforts have also been promoted as hospitals begin asking new questions about their impact on the community and their role as larger environmental stewards.

Given the pressures that healthcare organizations are facing, planning for sustainability by reducing costs, improving productivity and promoting partnership and community involvement is becoming the norm, not the exception.

Sidebar:
Examples of Eco-Friendly Materials for Hospitals:
Natural linoleum flooring
More natural material/less metal
Recycled carpet tile
Natural cleaning  products
Permeable paving materials
“Cool” roofs/Green roofs
Sustainable  wood/bamboo
Natural plants where viable

For further information, please e-mail Susan Haifleigh at shaifleigh@vfa.com.