Although a healthcare facility renovation can be costly, it’s often less expensive and more practical to reuse existing infrastructures than to build new facilities, according to an article on the Health Facilities Management website.
One of the first steps of renovating an older hospital is to evaluate the existing space and systems.
With older mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) systems, the evaluation often focuses on capacity.
At Medina (Ohio) Hospital, for instance, a renovation project team discovered that the OR suite, catheterization lab and intensive care unit shared one air handler. The team decided that a new air-handling unit to support two of the newly renovated ORs were needed to reduce dependence on the original system.