Addressing Hospital Facility Service Challenges

OVIEDO, Fla. — For health care buildings, facility services are a challenging and necessary component to providing care for patients. Health care facilities need to ensure they are in compliance with the latest regulatory standards and be able to maintain operations within a financially stable environment.

Healthcare Construction+Operations News spoke with Randall Scott, services segment manager, health care, at Schneider Electric, a company that specializes in energy management, about the challenges and opportunities that health care facilities face every day.

Q: What challenges are health care facilities facing in terms of facility services, maintenance, worker safety and overall operations?

Scott: Regulatory compliance stands to be the primary challenge facing health care facilities today. The codes and recommended guidelines leave many confused when it comes to the type and frequency of maintenance activities. To compound the issue, many states and local authorities are still using the 2005 (or older) version of the NFPA 99 Life Safety Code, although the 2015 edition is now available.

Complying with the requirements of NFPA 70E will address electrical workplace safety for workers. This includes developing an electrical safe work practices policy, having an arc flash risk assessment performed (at least every five years) and labeling the equipment, training and auditing electrical workers on a regular basis, providing personal protective equipment (PPE) and proper tools, and maintaining all electrical system components 



Q: How do facility services impact operations for health care facilities?

Scott: Generally, half of the operating and maintenance budget for a health care facility is used towards energy costs, energy that is needed to provide the facility and systems for medical professionals that tend to patients; thus, facility services plays a critical role supporting the mission of health care facilities. Health care facility leaders need to be mindful that this skilled work force is aging, and the equipment they support is highly specialized and continuing to grow more complex.

It is imperative that health care leaders continue to develop young talent and train their future facility services personnel, because the 2015 edition of NFPA 70E refined the definition of a qualified person, increasing what is expected of them. A qualified person is one who has demonstrated skills and knowledge related to the construction and operation of the electrical equipment and installations and has received safety training to identify and avoid the hazards involved. The bottom line is that facility services personnel play a critical role in the daily operation of health care facilities, and the pipeline of talent needs to be addressed to facilitate the future success of health care. 



Q: What opportunities are there to improve facility services?

Scott: The first step is to ensure reliable power, and a critical component to ensuring reliable power is properly maintaining equipment. If regularly scheduled maintenance has not been performed, implement a preventive maintenance program that complies with applicable current codes and standards. When developing the program, utilizing up-to-date documentation for the electrical system is a requirement. From there, predictive maintenance technologies such as metering and monitoring can be incorporated to provide real-time data to help identify potential issues before they result in downtime. 



Q: What recommendations do you have to improve facility efficiency and management?

Scott: My first recommendation is to benchmark the current state of the electrical system by engaging a professional engineer to conduct a power system assessment and equipment evaluation. This evaluation identifies potential high-risk issues within the electrical distribution system and provides a prioritized set of recommended actions to help avoid downtime and minimize risks to your facility.

My second recommendation is to elevate a preventive maintenance program into a service plan. Select a qualified provider to develop and execute a plan for all electrical components within your facility (even those with different manufacturers). Plans can be customized to specific needs, and most have fixed-rate payment terms.