In operation for more than 100 years, Sacred Heart Medical Center (SHMC) of Spokane, WA, is driven by its mission: “Offering health care services with prudent stewardship to meet physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.”
Sacred Heart is one of the largest hospitals in the Northwest with 623 beds and more than 1.65 million sq ft of floor space. As the workplace of more than 4,000 health care professionals and support staff, Sacred Heart is Spokane’s largest employer. The hospital’s medical staff alone is made up of more than 800 specialists and primary care doctors. As a regional tertiary health care provider, Sacred Heart has grown to serve areas beyond Spokane including regions of Oregon, Idaho, and Montana.
Increased Patient Comfort
In the wake of continued growth, it became apparent that the hospital needed to maximize operational and energy savings. The challenge was to find a way to steadily increase efficiency with the hospital’s growth while providing improved patient environments. As an immediate solution, Sacred Heart contracted Johnson Controls to install its Metasys® BAS and provide system training to the hospital’s maintenance staff. Johnson Controls has been a partner with the hospital in fulfilling its mission for more than 50 years.“The core function of facilities management is providing a safe, reliable, and efficient operating system that benefits the hospital and its patients. We could no longer accomplish this without a centralized system for environmental control. With the Metasys system installed, results were impressive with fewer hot and cold complaints, more consistent operations, and easier diagnosis of problems,” explains Philip Kercher, assistant director of facilities for Sacred Heart.
With a renewed focus on maximizing those systems, Sacred Heart then entered an agreement with Johnson Controls that expanded their partnership to the next level. Under the contract, a Johnson Controls Building Environment Specialist (BES) works onsite to meet the goals of reduce utility energy consumption at no added cost, and to increase the comfort of its occupants.
Building Environment Specialist Adds Value
To reduce utility costs, the BES implemented a comprehensive and sustainable energy and operational management plan for the hospital. Monthly utility bills are used to measure the performance of the plan. The resulting revenues are applied to the hospital’s core business and fund the BES services. In the first year, the program resulted in energy savings of more than $120,000, against a guarantee of $105,000. Guaranteed savings of $87,000 for 2002 were surpassed by mid-year.Similarly, to reduce utility consumption the BES provides technical support, systems evaluation, and works to optimize the operation of mechanical and electrical systems. Monthly utility consumption is then monitored to measure performance. Energy consumption has already been reduced by more than 15,500 MMBtu, resulting in an additional 4% energy savings.
Improved performance and reliability of the building systems was a focal point for increasing the productivity of the facilities. Sacred Heart wanted to take better advantage of the system and its efficiencies. For example, when the hospital’s laboratory data reporting was deemed insufficient, Metasys was used to monitor the equipment and provide reports, avoiding other costly solutions. “Integration of the lab equipment was the best and most cost-efficient solution to the unique requirements for monitoring that equipment,” said Kercher.
The Metasys system provides efficient monitoring and control of operations in five buildings with multiple pieces of equipment. Along with improving the comfort of patients throughout all areas of the hospital, the system generated more than $395,000 in energy savings within the first six years of installation.
