Every aspect of an HVAC system is controlled by building automation system (BAS) which ultimately ensures optimum operational performance resulting in lesser energy costs and comfort to patients, visitors, and staff. Unfortunately, this system is the least acknowledged yet the most expensive system in a hospital.
One pressing issue in healthcare is that many administrations are directing engineers to make crucial multi-million dollar decisions on which BAS to use without realizing the long-term reverberation on the facility’s maintenance operations and costs. With over 50 percent of the facility’s budget allocated to energy, BAS should be the primary focus of engineers. We have highlighted 4 critical considerations while selecting a building automation system.
- Energy Saving
Nation-wide healthcare facilities are under the pressure of reducing their energy usage. Building automation system is essential for generating energy savings as they can be used to implement programming and monitor the energy usage of equipment and reduce energy wastage. A well designed BAS provides daily energy consumption trends to the facility manager who can practice energy saving strategies.
- Regulatory Compliance
One crucial component of every decision a healthcare facility makes is compliance with regulatory requirements, and it goes the same for a building automation system. An effective BAS provides assistance in managing the compliance issues through immediate alerts, informative graphics, and displaying critical environment conditions. This makes troubleshooting becomes simple for environment with high occupancy.
- Ease of use
An unhandy system can slow down a facility’s departments further impacting the work efficiency and patient experience. A user-friendly interface with dashboards, easy-to-read graphics will minimize the time to monitor, evaluate, adjust, and troubleshoot daily operations.
- Needs Assessment
The first step to determine an appropriate BAS for a facility is to understand the variations of the current HVAC and recognize the needs of the site. Making a detailed inventory of the current BAS questions is one way to achieve this. Asking your teams a series of general questions can be a good start. Post that, gather perspectives from different BAS users within the facility to determine the necessary attributes.
Executing a carefully created plan to ensure the key factors of the system is of utmost importance. Always remember, BAS directly impacts the patient experience, energy usage and costs, and compliance within a facility.