Healthcare: Sales Support Library - White Papers

Healthcare organizations face growing challenges related to infectious disease control. Although adherence to best practices such as frequent hand washing and the use of personal protective equipment are regarded as the leading weapons against infectious disease spread and hospital acquired infections, the built environment, including the HVAC systems, also play an important role. Strides in the development of smart building operation management platforms that easily and cost-effectively integrate with a facility’s existing systems can give healthcare providers a powerful tool with which to enhance the effectiveness of their overall infection control programs.

The trend toward retail healthcare has resulted in healthcare enterprises having to operate dozens and sometimes hundreds of small remote facilities equipped with little or no energy control capabilities, except for simple thermostats. By retrofitting these facilities with intelligent controllers and building management systems, facility managers will see rapid ROI through reduced energy costs of up to 30%, improved patient comfort, and higher staff productivity.

Hospitals around the world are increasingly adopting microgrid technology to increase resilience and reduce energy costs. To optimize a microgrid solution, hospital teams must ensure accurate feasibility studies are done and distributed energy resources are properly sized. Modular architectures should be considered to help simplify microgrid design and installation, while reducing maintenance cost. All financing options, incentives, and operational models should be evaluated to reduce risks and maximize returns.

February 2006 - The massive electric power blackout in the northeastern U.S. and Canada on August 14-15, 2003 catalyzed discussions about modernizing the U.S. electricity grid. Industry sources suggested that investments of $50 to $100 billion would be needed. This work seeks to better understand an important piece of information that has been missing from these discussions: what do power interruptions and fluctuations in power quality (power-quality events) cost electricity consumers? We developed a bottom-up approach for assessing the cost to U.S. electricity consumers of power interruptions and power-quality events (referred to collectively as “reliability events”). The approach can be used to help assess the potential benefits of investments in improving the reliability of the grid. We developed a new estimate based on publicly available information, and assessed how uncertainties in these data affect this estimate using sensitivity analysis.

This report describes a monitoring program designed to characterize power quality levels on electric distribution systems. The monitoring program is being sponsored by the Electric Power Research Institute. Initial stages of the project resulted in the development of a new power quality monitoring instrument - the BMI 8010 PQNode. This instrument permits simultaneous monitoring of steady-state quantities (rms voltage and current, harmonic distortion levels, power factor, etc.) and disturbances (voltage sags, overvoltages, transients, etc.).

The quality of electricity service required by customers of all classes is increasing. This requirement for increasing quality is due to many factors, including increasing sensitivity of the devices used by customers and their awareness of the impacts of small variations in the quality of the electricity supply. In the early 1990s, EPRI initiated a project called the Distribution Power Quality (DPQ) Project, which resulted in power quality monitoring at 277 distribution sites statistically chosen throughout the United States to gain valuable knowledge regarding the frequency and severity of power quality events. This report presents the finding of a follow-on project, referred as DPQ II, which was conducted in 2001 and 2002. This project resulted in characterizing power quality in terms of short-duration variations such as voltage sags, voltage swells, and voltage interruptions. The characterization was based on analysis of data from 480 power quality monitors at different locations in a power system spanninga date range from August 30, 1993 through December 12, 2002. The results of the analysis that are presented in this report provide a unique opportunity to understand the electrical environment in terms of short-duration variations and further validate the findings of DPQ I.

The EPRI Distribution Power Quality Project is a two-year, ongoing assessment of power quality on the primary distribution systems of twenty-four utilities across the United States. This report includes a project overview including a discussion of the monitoring site selection process. Preliminary results are presented in this report, with data for a twelve month period from 223 monitoring sites. The results are in the form of statistical analysis for a composite of all sites. In particular, work has focused on rms voltage disturbances, voltage harmonic distortion, and steady-state voltage regulation. The fruit of this study will be a database of power quality statistics typical of U.S. distribution systems which can be used as a comparison base for power quality investigations in the future.

A vital concern in any healthcare environment is the “health” of the electrical power distribution systems. This paper discusses considerations that should be taken into account when assessing healthcare electrical power distribution systems, including code compliance, bonding and grounding issues, ground fault protection requirements, and surge protection needs. The procedures for carrying out assessments are also outlined, as well as the concerns and issues to be aware of that could compromise performance and/or safety of a healthcare facility.

Due to the shortcomings of manual testing, an increasing number of hospitals are switching to automated EPSS test systems. Automated EPSS testing increases reliability due to the accurate monitoring and recording of test parameters, it provides traceability in case of unanticipated problems with the EPS system or litigation, and it helps to reduce the staffing burden for such tests.

The HealthPower Infrastructure Program identifies and mitigates risk factors associated with the safety, operation, maintenance and regulatory compliance of your electrical system. Our systematic approach ensures the entire electrical system is covered, from surgery suites to patient rooms to ancillary areas.

This white paper will discuss how hospitals can gain energy efficiencies and translate these savings into significantly improved financial performance. To begin, we will look at trends in healthcare energy usage as well as recent and predicted changes in energy costs. Next, we will compare traditional costsaving measures to energy efficiency projects, and illustrate how improving energy efficiency can lead to healthy financial performance and improved patient safety. The paper also discusses various specific energy efficiency solutions and considerations to take into account when choosing an energy management service provider. In conclusion, we will look at examples of hospital energy efficiency projects that have delivered significant results in terms of cost savings and patient-centric improvements.

As our world becomes more connected, advanced technology is extending beyond patient care and into the hospital infrastructure itself. In particular, the Internet of Things (IoT) is changing the standard of information delivery and decision-making with insight into facility data that can be used to improve operational efficiency, patient satisfaction, and safety for all. This white paper will explore the trends affecting healthcare IoT adoption, best practices for implementation, benefits, and case studies of hospitals that are leading the charge into the future of modern healthcare.

As hospital administrators re-evaluate their facilities’ resilience against grid instability, many also face budgetary and environmental pressures. Microgrid technology is increasingly being used to further enhance uptime, while reducing energy spend and minimizing a facility’s carbon footprint. The newest of these solutions integrate advanced energy analytics to more intelligently manage energy assets, from gensets and CHP, to renewables and loads.

Hospitals require extraordinary reliability from their power systems. Life-support systems, as well as critical ancillary infrastructure systems such as HVAC, communications, records management, and security must all remain online during a power disruption. The financial impact of power disruption was demonstrated during the August 2003 blackout, which affected 45 million people in eight US states and 10 million people in parts of Canada. Healthcare facilities experienced hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue from cancelled services, legal liability, and damaged reputations. Six hospitals were in bankruptcy 1 year later. Within the healthcare market, hospitals often are called upon to provide emergency services during disaster situations. Meeting these demands requires power systems that are designed to support highly critical operations for extended durations under often difficult circumstances. Hospital expansions are also an area of concern if power systems are not designed properly.

The main mission of any hospital is providing high-quality services and continuity of care for patients. Underpinning this mission are numerous complex systems, many of which require high power availability, power reliability, power quality and secure power. Power problems can have serious consequences on human life, finances, technical operations, the environment, and the hospital’s image and reputation, so creating and maintaining a healthy electrical distribution system is crucial. Understanding how a balance between architecture, services and components can provide an ideal solution is key to true power reliability. Typical architectures for a hospital’s electrical distribution system can help ensure the best possible solution, and include power monitoring as a critical component. The information from the power monitoring system can be used to manage the electrical distribution system independently or in conjunction with other hospital infrastructure like the building management system. The effective design, operation and maintenance of these systems provide huge benefits to hospital facility managers, by providing a simpler and more comprehensive way to ensure that the hospital’s electrical distribution system is always ready to provide the energy required for high-quality patient care.

Emergency power systems rely on batteries to deliver power at the right moment, in order to start a generator or to run a UPS in the event of an outage. Neglected batteries, however, are the most common reason for backup power failure. This paper discusses how automated testing systems provide precise functional assessments of battery health, and how such systems prevent unnecessary failures.