Preventing infections and ensuring patient comfort are priorities to healthcare organizations like Arnprior Regional Health (ARH). ARH, which includes Arnprior & District Memorial Hospital, The Grove Nursing Home and a primary care center, recently overhauled its indoor comfort system to improve temperature control and air quality, creating even more comfort for patients.
The solution reduced ARH’s energy, water and operations and maintenance costs by about $176,000 per year, a 28-percent reduction in energy use. These savings helped to offset the cost of the project. To achieve these financial and energy savings, ARH collaborated with Trane, a global provider of indoor comfort and energy services solutions and a brand of Ingersoll Rand.
Providing high-quality care
“Heating and ventilation are critically tied to the environment and operations of a healthcare facility,” said Mr. John Gruno, ARH’s Manager of Environmental & Facility Services. “In addition to comfort, the HVAC system maintains proper conditions required to operate and conduct medical procedures. The improvements will help support our ability to provide high-quality care to the communities we serve and continue our virtually non-existent rates of hospital-acquired infections.”
At hospitals like Arnprior’s, reliable boilers are a necessity to maintain operations. The team created a separate mechanical room so that the existing boilers could stay functional and keep the hospital running as new ones were installed. The new boilers are much more efficient, operating at 90 percent efficiency, versus the 67 percent of the old boilers.
ARH is also making additional improvements to save energy and fund more equipment updates. The healthcare organization is now working with Trane on the next phase, which includes centralized cooling for part of the facilities.