Within healthcare facilities, high availability of systems is a key influencer of revenue and patient safety and satisfaction. Three important critical success factors need to be addressed in order to achieve safety and availability goals. These include exceeding the facility’s level of regulatory compliance, a linking of business benefits to the maintenance of a safe and an “always on” power and ventilation environment, and a sensible approach to technology upgrades that includes new strategies for “selling” technological improvements to executives. This reference guide offers recommendations for identifying and addressing each of these issues.

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A Practical Guide to
Ensuring Business Continuity and High Performance in Healthcare Facilities

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Health care facilities have a low tolerance for power
disruptions. System availability is key for both
profitability and patient care. Physical power
infrastructures link directly to the security of human
lives and the success of an institution as a whole.
Strangely, there is no single product or procedure that
protects an entire facility. Given the nature of patient
healthcare, having a critical facility infrastructure that
supports electrical and emergency systems, comfort
control, and network security is imperative.
Introduction:

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The healthcare industry is expected to evolve with today’s “always on” mentality. This increased availability
and connectivity helps to ensure business continuity, rapid disaster recovery, and continued growth and
profitability.
Some business drivers demanding high availability include:
• EMRs
• self-service
• radio-frequency identification (RFID)
• robots
Exceeding Regulatory Compliance Requirements

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Adherence to governmental safety regulations
reflects strongly on the reputation and success of
healthcare institutions. Exceeding regulations can
both enhance the net worth of the institution and
prepare it for the future.
As part of its due diligence, hospitals must not
only evaluate physical security, but cyber privacy
and security.
How New Technologies Impact Business Processes

5. Hospitals are not like typical office spaces in
their power requirements.
In many regions, healthcare facilities must meet
strict regulations outlining tolerances for power
interruptions to critical procedures and medical
care zones.
These guidelines help to ensure that power
remains on and that electric currents from
various medical devices don’t harm patients.
Power, Operations, and
Emergency Response
Coordination
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Business Continuity Improvement, Considerations
Ramifications of a hospital power outage can
be staggering — e.g., in a 500-bed facility
losses could reach $5 million. Formulating a
plan for infrastructure and facility management
ensures business continuity by reducing
downtime and addressing both patient safety
and cost avoidance.
As part of this plan, assess the following:
• hazards
• vulnerability
• risk
• disaster recovery
• fire safety
• hospital security
• environmental
• power

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Enhancing Systems
Availability
In the United States alone, the World Health
Organization estimates yearly healthcare
losses of $335 billion due to inoperability of
conventional information systems.
However, an integrated control platform
provides solutions —
• Sophisticated power distribution
• Management and monitoring techniques
• Greater system availability for
hospital personnel

8. Within a healthcare facility, physical
infrastructures support:
• Proper function and comfort of ICU and
other operating rooms
• Powering biomedical and cardiac labs
• Functioning of imaging equipment labs
• Powering of nurses’ stations data centers
and wiring closets
Technology Support of
Critical Applications
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Precision Control of Comfort and Environment
A Building Management System (BMS)
provides facility managers with centralized
control and promotes a facility-wide
approach to managing energy and
occupant comfort.
It also helps executive decision makers
by providing:
• Access to real-time data across
systems — reducing the time it takes
to diagnose and fix issues; and
• new insights into how building systems
work together, identifying opportunities
to improve and optimizing overall
operations.

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Sustainability and
Energy Savings
Modern energy management systems make
up for outdated systems by now monitoring
the power of each component and critical
circuits across multiple facilities. This allows
facility staff quick and easy access to
screens that enable them to control and
monitor energy consumption.
Energy use in healthcare has increased
by 36% since 1995 due to changes in
technology, as well as an increase in the
number of patients helped. Meanwhile,
energy costs have also increased by
approximately 20%.
On average, 75% of a hospital’s energy
usage stems from:
• lighting
• heating
• cooling and ventilation
• hot water heating

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A key challenge facing operations and facilities personnel is how to achieve buy-in from executives for
the funding of technology upgrade projects.
To effectively communicate, facilities personnel will need to emphasize cost reduction, faster turnover,
and higher return on investment:
• Practical business benefits
• Improve operational efficiency
• Enhance competitive advantage
• Boost public image
• Future improvement — not a
one-time, one-project benefit
Securing Buy-in from Executives

12. Technology is now core to the delivery of
quality healthcare. Facilities require continuous,
uninterrupted power to ensure the entire
infrastructure and distributed IT systems are
always on — and always safe.
To achieve this, coordination is needed between
facilities and IT. By modeling a hospital’s
infrastructure around safety, hospitals can
greatly improve clinical outcomes, shorten
inpatient stays, decrease readmissions, and
reduce hospital expenditures.
Conclusion
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