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Saving Lives and Energy in Beantown
Posted by johnsoncontrols on August 2, 2009 11:40 PM
By Dan Collins, Johnson Controls
“Exceptional Care. Without Exception.” That’s the motto at Boston Medical Center, New England’s largest “safety net” hospital.
Boston Medical provides consistently excellent health services to anyone who needs it, regardless of their social status or ability to pay. Some 70 percent of the hospital’s patients come from low income families, are elderly, have disabilities or come from other groups that might otherwise find getting the health care they need difficult, if not impossible.
In 2008, more than three quarters of a million patients came through Boston Medical’s doors to receive health care services in more than 70 areas of medical specialty and subspecialty. The emergency room – the largest Level 1 trauma center in New England – had more than 129,000 visits, 60 percent more than the hospital with the second highest number.
When Johnson Controls took on an infrastructure renewal and energy efficiency project at Boston Medical, we knew success would mean more than finishing the project on time and within budget – which we did. We knew it would also mean doing everything we could to ensure patients continued to receive the top care they deserved and expected, without delay and without disruptions. I’m happy to say, “Mission accomplished!”
As general contractor on the project, we worked with the hospital’s administrators and facilities management team to schedule and coordinate project work so that disruptions to staff, patients and visitors were minimized, if not eliminated. In some cases, this required some pretty extraordinary measures.
For example, a major element of the project was the construction of a new 2,700-ton, high-efficiency, state-of-the-art chilled water plant to meet the growing need to cool patient care technology and lay the groundwork for future hospital expansion. This meant consolidating three existing chiller plants into one, while keeping one of them running to meet the hospital’s ongoing needs. We accomplished this by first removing two of the old chillers and then installing the three new chillers in the same space. After testing and commissioning them, we put the new chillers into service, enabling us to remove the last of the old equipment. With just seven months to complete the whole process, we were able to get the new chiller plant up and running ahead of schedule and, more importantly, ahead of hot weather.
Other energy efficiency improvements included installing variable frequency drives on motors, as well as lighting occupancy sensors to turn lights on and off in hospital hallways. We also commissioned equipment and systems to make sure they operate at maximum efficiency.
The result: $1.2 million in energy savings during 2008 – an accomplishment acknowledged by the New England Chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers earlier this year when it honored the initiative with its Best Energy Project – Medical Facilities award.
The improvements also simplify building maintenance and reduce the hospital’s environmental impact. But in my mind the most significant achievement was summed up best in the words of a Boston Medical project manager we worked with: “At no time did the project affect patient care.”
Considering the critical role Boston Medical plays in the health and well-being of literally hundreds of thousands of people in the region, that’s something we’re all very proud of.
Efficiency Now! It’s never been more important.
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