NEHES Monthly Digest

New England Healthcare Engineers Society

Very Special Project
WBRC Architects/Engineers®
For over 50 years, the Children’s Center in Augusta, Maine, has transformed the lives of children with developmental disabilities. This new expanded facility will help the Children’s Center serve even more of these special kids and their families.
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NEHES News
NEHES Members have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in many different ways. If you have a best practice which would be helpful to other NEHES members, we encourage you to share these at the following link: https://app.smartsheet.com/b/form/4d039e0c63d3495fa9a91d2b4d00484e  

 

Best practices can be viewed on the NEHES Website at this link: https://nehes.org/page/shared_best_practices

 

NEHES also has COVID-19 resources available at this link: https://nehes.org/page/shared_best_practices 

 

New articles are posted frequently and if you have a resource which would be helpful to NEHES members, please let us know by email NEHES at info@nehes.org
Message from President
  
While it has been a challenging year, it has also been a year of increased awareness of the critical role we all play in providing safe, high-quality, exceptional care to the patients in our facilities. Our jobs have been challenging, overwhelming, non-stop, but very rewarding. To see the impact each of you has made on the response of our profession to the COVID-19 pandemic is incredible. Thank you for all you have done this year to make our facilities nimbler, safer, and more efficient.
  
Well, 2021 is just around the corner, and we have made it through this crazy year! I bet most of us are ready to get on with 2021.
Gleeson Powers Inc.
H.O. Penn Machinery Co., Inc.
Membership
  
Katrina Reade
Project Operations Supervisor
Concord Hospital

NEHES Member since
2015

Why did you join NEHES?
A few of my coworkers encouraged me to join NEHES. The available education opportunities have broadened my knowledge and have made me more confident in my role.
For additional information about Chapter Events, check the NEHES website, www.nehes.org and the NEHES Event Calendar.
  

By Dann Boyer CHFM, Director of Facility Operations, Sturdy Memorial Hospital, and Thomas Tsaros, PE, Energy & Infrastructure Service Leader, Fitzemeyer & Tocci Associates

 

Sturdy Memorial Hospital broke ground last month on a combined heat and power (CHP) project. The project, part of an ongoing effort by the hospital to tackle rising energy costs, represents the next major energy initiative for the hospital. Past initiatives undertaken by the hospital to reduce energy costs included implementing various energy efficiency measures, such as lighting improvements, steam fittings insulation and trap replacement, variable frequency drive retrofits, and upgraded building management controls. The hospital also incorporates energy efficiency into aging equipment replacement as a standard practice. These measures have reduced current energy spend at Sturdy by 16% annually. Combined heat and power seemed the next logical step in creating even deeper reductions in energy costs.

WSP: Creating People-Centered Design
WSP
WSP is an internationally recognized engineering consulting firm that has grown to over 10,000 staff nationally and 45,000 globally in every technical specialty (MEP, Structural, Commissioning, Civil, Water and Environment, Energy, Power, etc.) while still offering the same local expertise and service that our clients have come to expect.  
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ASHE Update
  

“Of all the months of the year there is not a month one half so welcome to the young, or so full of happy associations, as the last month of the year.”Charles Dickens

 

 

The year 2020 is drawing to a close, and although our “happy associations” were distant at best to keep ourselves safe, as innovators we continued to learn, adapt and share what we’ve learned every day. I am proud to be part of this association. I can affirm that ASHE business continues apace and is ready to energetically engage in a promising and successful 2021. Let me offer our NEHES membership the following updates.

Health Facilities Management
The American Society for Health Care Engineering's COVID Response Tactics Sharing survey project is a good source of actionable information from a range of health care facilities fields.
  
The American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) is one of the largest associations devoted to optimizing the healthcare-built environment and is a personal membership organization of the American Hospital Association. ASHE’s 12,000+ members design, build, and operate hospitals, and are involved in improving the healthcare physical environment from the time hospital blueprints are drawn throughout the lifespan of a facility.
RPF Associates, Inc.
REOS Sales & Service
Sustainability
Health Facilities Management
Replacing and upgrading lighting is expected to reduce energy costs for one hospital by $350,000 per year.
NPR
Studies show that operating rooms consume a significant share of energy in hospitals and can produce more than 20% of its waste.
Facility Management News
Health Facilities Management
A reduction in patient traffic in health care facilities, brought on by the increasing use of telehealth services, could have implications for facility management.
Healthcare Facilities Today
Continuing operations during a construction project requires careful planning, cooperation, and flexibility.
Health Facilities Management
Recruiting and retaining technical staff can be challenging, but there a number of steps facility managers can take to improve the odds of success.
Seaman DiCarlo General Contractors, Inc.
Pall Medical