Hospital Expansion: A Healthy Vision
Part 1: Texas Children's Hospital Takes on $1.5 Billion Expansion
Part 2: Building Addition, Remote Campus Headline Hospital Expansion
Part 3: Hospital Expansion: Efficient Equipment Neutralizes Higher Energy Costs
Part 4: Automating Operations: Hospital Upgrades Building-Automation System, CMMS
Automating Operations: Hospital Upgrades Building-Automation System, CMMS
By Chris Matt, Managing Editor - Print & E-Media - December 2009 - Building Automation
Two big components of the hospital’s energy-management strategy are its building-automation system (BAS) and computerized maintenance management system (CMMS). Milton spearheaded efforts to upgrade both the BAS and the CMMS — now an enterprise asset management system (EAM) — to account for the Vision 2010 expansion. An interface will allow the BAS and EAM to work together.
Before upgrading the CMMS, three departments — facilities operations, bio-medical engineering, and security services — each had a different version of the system. The upgraded EAM will accommodate the needs of all three departments, and it will work with the BAS to streamline maintenance and operations activities.
“In the transition, all of the new assets will be loaded into that database, and more information will go in with the asset than with the older system,” Milton says. “We’ll be able to link that asset tag to an (operations and maintenance) manual for that asset. We’ll be able to link that asset tag to a floor plan on a (computer-aided design) drawing of where it’s sitting.”
For example, consider maintaining filters on a 40-ton air-handling unit. When the differential pressure across the filter bank reaches a level at which technicians need to replace the filter, the EAM will generate a work order so technicians know to perform preventive maintenance on the air handler.
“We’re loading in the EAM the ability to do inspections for fire extinguishers and exit lights and fire doors,” Milton says. “People will be using hand-helds and scanners, and they’ll scan the equipment tag on a fire door and punch in the inspection time, and it will date and time stamp it and go into the database.”
The hospital viewed the Vision 2010 expansion not only as an opportunity to grow but also as a chance to focus on existing operations and develop ways to make the hospital more efficient for the future.
Says Milton, “We’re saving a lot of money just by optimizing operations. We haven’t spent any capital yet for energy management. We reduced energy consumption by $1.2 million.”
