Willamette Falls Hospital
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Once the facility director at Oregon City’s Willamette Falls Hospital figured out how to present energy management to hospital administrators as solid return on investment, there was no looking back. He’s now mapped out a strategic energy management plan that will cut energy use 25% and save the hospital over $95,000 in three years through a combination of tightened-up O&M and needed capital improvements.
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John Waldrup is placing energy saving
fluorescent bulbs in the emergency room
waiting area with help from Mark Sorensen,
Plant Operations Director of Willamette
Falls Hospital.
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Mark Sorensen, facility director at Willlamette Falls Hospital in Oregon City, Oregon, and recent president of the Oregon Society for Healthcare Engineering, has long recognized the value of energy management, and he’s spent much of his career trying to convince hospital administrators to share his point of view. “I’ve always looked for ways to reduce costs: I see it as my responsibility to reduce energy consumption for my hospital and put those dollars back into patient care,” says Sorensen.
It’s been a hard sell, however, with many hospitals perceiving energy management efforts as just another expense. “I tried for years to get individual projects going, especially quick-return-on-investment lighting retrofits, and failed miserably,” admits Sorensen, adding, “Hospital administration usually sees facility directors as nothing but revenue depleters.”
When Sorensen arrived at independent, 143-bed, 250,000-sq-ft Willamette Falls Hospital, he decided to try a different angle. Just before his arrival, the hospital had approved replacement of a boiler burner with a more energy-efficient model, but the new facility director took it upon himself to reduce the cost of the project by partnering with Umpqua Bank to secure an Oregon Department of Energy Business Energy Tax Credit that yielded a $6,642 cash payment to Willamette Fall Hospital. “Here hospital administrators were ready to spend the money, and I turned around and handed money back to them,” says Sorensen.
The unexpected windfall took the non-profit hospital’s administrators by surprise, and they were delighted. That was all the encouragement Sorensen needed to begin searching for other ways to increase energy management’s return on investment for his hospital. Not long after, he heard about BetterBricks’ approach for developing a Strategic Energy Management Plan (SEMP), with its emphasis on demonstrating to top management how cost-effective efforts can yield big bottom-line returns: “I quickly jumped on the SEMP bandwagon,” says Sorensen.
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| Exterior of Willamette Falls Hospital |
He approached Willamette Falls administrators about developing a SEMP that would complement the hospital’s overall strategic plan, and they gave him the go-ahead, in addition to agreeing to a BetterBricks facilities assessment to confirm energy management opportunities at the hospital. “Our administration team is forward-thinking, long-term thinking, and very receptive,” reports Sorensen. He also began exploring ways to get additional financial support for energyefficiency projects, including an incentive from Energy Trust of Oregon to extensively upgrade hospital lighting with more-efficient T-8 fluorescent lamps and new electronic ballasts.
Using BetterBricks’ SEMP template as a starting point, he began to set goals: “I probably wouldn’t have done it if I had to sit and write from a blank piece of paper – a busy facility director doesn’t want to reinvent the wheel,” says Sorensen, adding, “The SEMP template is a well-written electronic document: you make small revisions to it to suit your situation. ?It doesn’t get any better than that.”
Willamette Falls administrators recently approved Sorensen’s strategic plan for improvements that are expected to reduce annual hospital energy consumption by 25% over three years, for a total saving of over $95,000. These improvements will include operation and maintenance practice changes as well as new capital projects.
Sorensen will begin by benchmarking his hospital’s energy performance, then regularly tracking and monitoring energy use to verify how simple O&M activities such as calibrating thermostats, repairing pump seal leaks, and checking on automated lighting system setpoints save energy. “We’ll make time to give this the attention that it deserves,” vows Sorensen. He’s also mapping out needed capital projects: HVAC system improvements, including direct digital controls and more-efficient air handlers and boiler burners, are the first items on the agenda.
The facility director is confident he can attain his SEMP goals: “My hospital administration is totally committed to this. Our efforts will maintain and improve the health of our hospital, our patients, and our community.”
Sorensen’s question for hospital facility-management colleagues: “I don’t see any negatives in the BetterBricks approach to strategic energy management. Why wouldn’t you do this?”
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