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Articles by Mike Zorich
Video: How do rural hospitals differ from urban ones?
Jose Torres from RMF Engineering looks at how engineers designing rural hospitals must get full buy-in from the maintenance staff when specifying new equipment or upgrading older systems In this discussion, Jose I. Torres, PE, Associate, RMF Engineering, Raleigh, North Carolina, talks about rural hospitals, and how they often differ from hospitals in larger cities.
Energy benchmark survey released on hospitals
Grumman|Butkus Associates, a firm of energy efficiency consultants and sustainable design engineers, recently released the results of its 2021 Hospital Energy and Water Benchmarking Survey, focusing on healthcare facilities’ resource usage trends and costs for calendar year 2020. Since GBA initiated the survey more than 25 years ago, hospitals’ overall fossil fuel use has trended downward, but electricity use isn’t declining as much.
Top 5 Consulting-Specifying Engineer content: May 6-12, 2022
Consulting-Specifying Engineer‘s top 5 content over the past week covered hospitals, air movement, indoor air quality, NFPA 72 changes and microgrids. Were you out last week? Catch up with a link to each article below. 1. Video: Electrification, decarbonization in hospitals – Two experts from Henderson Engineers explain how hospitals are setting trends in building electrification. 2.
A five-step health care emergency preparedness plan
Learning Objectives Understand health care resiliency and the four major risks faced by health care facilities. Identify the components of the CMS Emergency Preparedness Rule. List the five steps in a health care emergency preparedness plan. Discover how the consulting engineer can assist in an emergency preparedness plan.
Resilient design in health care: Four steps for surviving a crisis
Learning Objectives Understand what is at risk if health care resiliency is not considered during design. List the resilient design principles that allow communities to survive various threats. Learn a step-by-step process to address resilient design. Identify the value that the consulting engineer provides in resilient design. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, establishing the resilient design of health care institutions had already become increasingly critical and complex.
Case study: Hospital achieves resilient design
Courtesy: Jeffrey Totaro, IMEG Corp. In 2008, Silver Cross Hospital embarked on the initial planning for a 760,000-square-foot replacement hospital in the Chicago suburb of New Lennox, Ill. The new facility’s planning included an all-private and family friendly 289-bed facility program with med/surge, pediatric, obstetrics, intensive care unit, behavioral health and rehabilitation beds.
Ask an expert: Mike Zorich on COVID-19
Figure 3: Ductwork is installed inside a forward triage surge tent at Advocate Aurora Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill. A duct sock down the center of the tent structure was added later to provide even distribution of supply air. The tent is intended to be balanced to neutral pressure, 10 air changes per hour. All joints in the tent fabric are taped and bottom edges secured to the pavement with a flashing membrane.
USP 800 Special Report: Prescription For Success
Many healthcare facilities have yet to complete the evaluation, planning, and construction process to ensure their pharmacy departments are compliant with the new United States Pharmacopeial General Chapter 800 “Hazardous Drugs – Handling in Healthcare Settings,” generally known as USP 800. The guideline goes into effect Dec. 1 and is intended to protect healthcare workers and patients from harm associated with exposure to hazardous drugs.
Pharmacy compliance advice
A compounding pharmacy with optional hazardous drug storage room. Image courtesy of ASHE United States Pharmacopeia (USP) General Chapter 800, Hazardous Drugs — Handling in Healthcare Settings, was developed to define the quality standards for the handling of hazardous drugs (HDs) and the proper environmental controls for compounding to protect health care workers and patients. This exposure can occur with workers who are unaware of their exposure and in departments outside of the pharmacy.
What to expect during certification of compounding spaces
The requirement for certification of the air quality, airflow and pressurization in the compounding areas is still found in Section 4.6 of USP General Chapter 797, Pharmaceutical Compounding — Sterile Preparations, but the similar physical environment requirements of the hazardous drug compounding area defined in USP General Chapter 800, Hazardous Drugs — Handling in Healthcare Settings, will be reviewed in the certification process as well.
Plan review for compounding rooms
The pharmacy staff should be highly engaged by the design and construction team early in the planning stages for compliance with USP General Chapter 800, Hazardous Drugs — Handling in Healthcare Settings. These discussions should start with understanding the entire process for how staff receives, transfers, stores, delivers and administers hazardous drugs (HDs) to patients. These discussions also should include the techniques the pharmacy staff will utilize for HD compounding.
Case study: IPD at work in health care
Collaboration between engineers and contractors leads to waste elimination and cost savings. In 2013, Advocate Health Care (now known as Advocate Aurora Health) embarked on a building program to modernize and expand its Advocate Medical Group (AMG) outpatient health care reach throughout the greater Chicagoland area.
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