Life Cycle Cost Analysis: An Asset Management Strategy

By: Melissa Rieman

Title: Healthcare Market Leader

TRANE

Many healthcare facilities still treat major heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system projects as if they were merely large maintenance expenses. However, the Consortium for Energy Efficiency reports that HVAC accounts for approximately 45 percent of a typical hospital’s energy use. Also, it’s clear that HVAC upgrades intended to last for decades are actually capital investments.

Thus HVAC project planning and implementation are best treated as vital parts of a fixed asset management strategy.

Dashboard Technology Simplifies Reporting and Improves Efficiency

By: Melissa Rieman

Title: Healthcare Market Leader,TRANE

Imagine pressing a single button to gather historical data that can guide future healthcare engineering decision-making … or getting instant notification when a system goes down … or monitoring all mechanical systems in your hospital from a single screen.

New “dashboard” technology — available today — can make these scenarios a reality in your healthcare facility. Similar to the at-a-glance look at vehicle performance delivered by a car’s dashboard, this technology allows engineers to track and create reports on a variety of environmental conditions — including temperature, humidity, energy, and relative pressure — from a single location.

If you were asked to describe the Health Industry Council to someone outside the organization, what would you say? How would you inspire them to be involved?

As the end of the year quickly approaches, member recruitment becomes a priority for 2010 and hopefully this article will help you articulate a value proposition and bring understanding to the importance and impact of the council.

Our mission statement is: a member-driven, non-profit corporation established to unite the North Texas health industry and advance the market as a center of excellence.

Senate bill offers workers incentive

By Michael Kranish, Boston Globe |  July 15, 2009

Workers who quit smoking, lose weight, and eat right could have their health insurance premiums cut by as much as half, possibly saving them thousands of dollars per year, under a measure inserted with little notice this week into the Senate healthcare overhaul bill.  The move represents a potential breakthrough on one of the most controversial elements of healthcare overhaul: how to get Americans to improve their well-being without turning government into a medical version of Big Brother.  Under the plan, individuals would have a strong financial incentive for jumping on a treadmill or signing up for smoking cessation classes, moves that would not only prolong their lives but also reduce the financial burdens of behavior-related disease on the healthcare system.  “Money talks,’’ Senator Judd Gregg, the New Hampshire Republican who helped broker the deal reached Monday night, said in an interview. “People react to incentives that involve cash.’’  The supermarket chain Safeway and some other companies - including, in Massachusetts, EMC Corp. - have developed these programs on their own. But such plans have not become widespread nationally.  The bipartisan agreement by members of the Senate health committee could still unravel as the bill makes it way through other committees in the Senate and House. But after months of focus on how to provide coverage to the uninsured, it represents a stark acknowledgment by senators that overhauling the nation’s healthcare system must include measures to make Americans more health-conscious.