By Krista McDonald Biason

As an electrical engineer, I attend a lot of professional engineering events. As a healthcare engineer, I also attend a lot of professional healthcare and healthcare architectural events. I always have believed that those who work at an integrated architecture and engineering firm do so for a reason — we like the collaborative process with our architectural friends. We enjoy the process of designing buildings - but does that mean we have neglected our engineering roots? I say an emphatic NO!

I have been designing healthcare facilities for more than 20 years, and I have been upgrading electrical infrastructures for almost as long. To me it is very organic to evaluate the entire building in the design process and not just look at the "scope proper" for each project. In some of my more recent discussions with Owners and Facility folks, I am starting to realize that not all engineers (or architects for that matter) approach the design process this way. You wouldn't put new tires and a snazzy coat of paint on a car sitting on blocks that hasn't run for years – so why would you spiff up part of a healthcare facility without understanding its infrastructure and systems capabilities and deficiencies.

I was discussing this dilemma with Peter Dahl, HGA's Director of Sustainable Operations. His focus on sustainability, resiliency and energy efficiency aligns well with the health and wellness concept that all healthcare projects strive to achieve.  A healthy indoor environment goes hand-in-hand with a healthcare facility's healing environment. Peter and our energy and infrastructure Group focus on the building systems that create and maintain a healing environment. 

Aging infrastructure often struggles to keep up with current demands of the existing systems and programs. Often, tracking system changes and modifications can be a full-time job for an already stressed healthcare facility maintenance staff, and that effort becomes a second – or lower – priority. By engaging a third party to evaluate and assess an existing building infrastructure, owners can uncover energy and functional issues and identify short-term and long-term solutions that align with the strategic facility needs. This is where the efforts of Peter and his group come into play.

Peter approaches a healthcare facility from a sustainable and engineering perspective to help an owner save money long-term and realize immediate operating savings. A minimal upfront investment could yield significant savings. Peter shared that a retrocommissioning effort, or a facility analysis, doesn't have to be an extensive effort in order to produce results. Small changes to the controls system for mechanical and electrical systems can have a big impact. For example, by evaluating the mechanical systems to confirm compliance with design parameters and current space use, engineers can verify system tolerance and optimization functions, realizing energy and cost savings for the facility owner.

It is common that an existing facility has had many remodels and modifications over the years, and an independent view of the engineering systems can uncover some significant issues that have appeared dormant for many projects. By understanding all of these deficiencies in a facility, the owner may then prioritize the projects to better procure and project capital improvement funds for the existing systems. This whole-building evaluation can help an organization understand the state of their facilities and develop a plan for incremental improvements or deep retrofits. 

Someone like Peter leads the assessment, evaluates the data, and provides recommendations for "simple fixes." Beyond the simple fixes, a strategic plan provides a priority list of infrastructure projects so that capital funding can be appropriated for the most crucial projects first while secondary system issues can be encapsulated in future capital budgets. By prioritizing system failure and energy payback opportunities, the Owner will be empowered to make engineering system decisions based upon sustainability, energy payback, and system resiliency.

Krista McDonald Biason is an electrical engineer at HGA.