WASHINGTON STATE SOCIETY
FOR HEALTHCARE ENGINEERING

SOUTHWEST CHAPTER
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
MASON GENERAL HOSPITAL
SHELTON, WA
FEBRUARY 2005

MINUTES

Present:
Bruce Alward, Lorraine Jamilkowski, Jay Auley, Kim Karbus-Weber, Bob Axley, Larry Kiehl, Mike Carico, Kevin Krogness, Mike Chitwood, Bethany Linden, Fred Colbert, Mike McWeeny, Maury Costantini, Rich Osborne, Matt Crollard, Tom Pittsenbarger, Terri Cunningham, Dave Reid, Lyle Daugherty [ Chair], Darrell Sackwar,
Keith Deline, Ray Tiedemann, Keith Geary, Gary Welch, Jay Gehrig, Todd Werdahl [recorder], Geoff Glass

Call to Order:
Lyle Daugherty called the meeting to order at 3:41 p.m.

Show And Tell -- Presentations / Products / Services:
Rich Osborne, NW Regional Rep for STEMS Energy Management Services, gave a presentation and bench demo on the STEMS bandpass filter, which provides transient voltage surge protection and lightning strike protection. The unit corrects harmonic distortion in your electronic circuits, lowers motor temperatures, improves the power factor, and extends motor service life. The product is ETL approved in the U.S. and Canada, has a 3-year warranty, backed by a $2 million product liability insurance, and has a 12-year money back guarantee to reduce electric bills on your treated circuits by 5-8%. Currently, reductions in the field are from 8-10% but 5% is the
guarantee. A state-of-the-art data logger is used to provide hard data enabling you to determine how much you will save. Surges and spikes result in increased kilowatt usage. The STEMS BandPass filters the surge and spikes and provides a pure 60 cycles signal to your load, reduces your line losses, your amp draw, your kilowatts and enhances your power factor which reduces
your bill and reduces operating cost. Payback is usually in 1 – 2 years. There are approximately 750 STEMS units in service in the U.S.

Fred Colbert, Colbert Infrared Services, gave a brief presentation on infrared thermographic services provided by C.I.S. [locally based] throughout the U.S. with occasional requests around the globe. He shared that Fortune 500 companies were taking the lead from C.I.S. and have engaged C.I.S. in setting up and establishing their infrared programs; companies like Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and U.S. Steel. Fred distributed CD’s that contained sample reports the program can provide (i.e.; electrical inspection reports, building heat loss reports, etc.). C.I.S. sells the equipment and provides the training. C.I.S. staff are professional thermographers and can provide annual inspections at your facility.

Alicia Parks with Coffman Engineers (a Structural, Mechanical and Electrical engineering firm), joined by Lisa Rosenow, discussed the LEED rating system and provided information on sustainable design and the LEED for Existing Buildings system (LEED-EB). The old LEED rating system was somewhat of a one-size-fits-all program. Healthcare and other unique industries have unique requirements and didn’t fit very well in the program. The “LEED for Existing Buildings” program was put in play. It’s a nice tool for the healthcare industry and basically a “road map for performance standards” in regards to operations and energy management of buildings. It creates a list of ways you can take a look at your building and pinpoint areas of savings opportunities -- with the goal of creating sustainability. It’s a flexible system and fits small and large projects. Its focus is on practical and cost effective measures; that “low hanging fruit”. It’s a way of recognizing organizations that are being good stewards and striving to reduce energy costs and waste disposal. Microsoft, Kaiser Permanente, Johnson Controls and King County are some organizations participating already. Green Guidelines for Healthcare is a tool for major renovations or construction but LEED-EB is for minor or medium upgrade projects (i.e.; upgrading mechanical systems, etc.). It’s based on EnergyStar. A brochure describing the program was distributed.

Rick Schnarr with Trane Company [Redmond, WA] briefly discussed the innovative, new CDQ [Cool, Dry, Quiet] enhanced dehumidification product – the CDQ wheel. The CDQ is not just a better dehumidifier. It’s a single unit solution for controlling humidity, temperature and ventilation in one package. Rick provided documentation for the group that explained the new CDQ wheel.


Speaker Presentation / Education:
Cynthia Putnam and Stan Price of Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA) discussed a project of the NEEA called their “high performance hospital partnership”. NEEA is a consortium of utility providers from Idaho, Montana, Washington and Oregon’s electric utilities (public and private) and representatives from industry and nonprofit organizations formed to change the market dynamic regarding energy efficiency. NEEA promotes products that consumers find helpful and that, in the long run, will serve the utilities; using ‘energy efficiency’ as a way to get low cost resources in to the region and preserve [or stretch] the valuable resource of hydroelectric power -- ultimately making our energy affordable. The High Performance Hospital Partnership is a collaboration between 1) Northwest hospital and healthcare associations, 2) BetterBricks, the commercial program of the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, and 3) our utility partners. The benefits of high performance hospitals are significant. High performance hospital design and operations can reduce operating costs, improve operating margins, enhance community leadership,
improve staff retention and support the highest quality of patient care. The opportunities to improve hospital energy efficiency and positively impact the bottom line are considerable. With hospital margins averaging between 1-4%, every dollar saved on energy can have a significant impact on facility management costs. Sustainable, high performance hospital design and operation in hospitals can typically improve energy performance by 20%. The new revenues a hospital would need to generate for the same bottom line impact are significant. For example, $50,000 in annual energy savings is comparable to revenues of $1,250,000 at a 4% net operating margin. The High Performance Hospital Partnership takes a holistic approach to energy management with a focus on cost reduction and higher net margins. Cynthia then discussed ways to construct economic arguments to show benefit(s) of energy management beyond the pay back period – going from a tactical approach to a strategic approach. A booklet/guide was passed around among the members in attendance that explained, in detail, the “business case”. (Booklets can be obtained from Cynthia)

For more information, go to
http://www.betterbricks.com/default.aspx?pid=hospitals

Business Meeting

Approval of Minutes:
Minutes from the 1/6/05 Chapter membership meeting were reviewed and approved (with minor corrections).

Secretary / Treasurer Report:
Todd Werdahl provided the Chapter Accounts Report. The Chapter had received the balance of the 2004 membership dues from the WSSHE State Secretary/Treasurer that amounted to $xxx which, when added to the Chapter’s account, brought the balance to $xxx as of 2/3/05. $xxx still needed to go to the WSSHE State Treasurer for one person’s PAID conference fee. The motion that everyone who attended the January 2005 membership meeting would get a $
10.00 Home Depot Gift Card had been approved by the Chapter Board but the cards had not been purchased yet ($xxx). This should be an anticipated/upcoming expense.

Old Business:
No old business to discuss

Education Report:
Gary Welch provided a review of the education planned for 2005:
February will be LEED / Green Building presentation by NEEA. March will be discussions with Chad Beebe (DOH) regarding change from UBC to IBC at Capital Medical Center in Olympia (Mike Chitwood to host). April will be code changes and dialog with Fire Marshals (Tay Tiedemann to host). May meeting will be replaced by the WSSHE Semi-Annual event in Chelan, Washington (April 28 th & 29 th ). June will be an interesting “tour opportunity”, yet to be determined (Puget Sound Blood Center is being considered with it’s Tissue Lab and Blood Bank). July or August will be a presentation by Robert Blakely on Sustainable Buildings and Green Building Certification. September will be the Chapter’s Annual Dinner, followed by the WSSHE Annual Conference (September 14 th , 15 th and 16 th ) in Yakima, WA. A motion was
made to get the 2005 Chapter Education schedule posted on the website. Gary Welch stated he would work with Dee Tiedemann to post the Chapter monthly education schedule (Technical education for staff has not been finalized yet).

Newsline Report:
Todd Werdahl reported that the Chapter had no Newsline articles to submit to the WSSHE State Board and requested everyone consider ideas and topics to submit for our Chapter. Todd shared that trade journal articles of interest could be considered as long as copyright authorization could be obtained (Todd, as Chapter Newsline person, would request copyright authorizations). Member-authored articles would be great, as well. Any Newsline article or suggestion should be submitted to Todd.

New Business:
 Discussion on the WSSHE website. Todd Werdahl polled those in attendance as to how many in the group had visited the new WSSHE website. About 50% had visited the website. Some individuals commented that the website needed to be refreshed (had old information) or had broken links or incorrect links (SW Chapter link pulls up Eastern Chapter information). All hoped to see the website updated soon and agreed it was a valuable tool for our membership across the state.

Ray Tiedemann shared that WSSHE Scholarships are still available (six $500.00 scholarships are available) and information would be mailed out soon reminding the membership to consider this education benefit. The goal is to have the information ready for review by the WSSHE State Board of Directors Meeting in Ellensburg on 2/25/05 (*not a teleconference meeting as had been
suggested). Applications for scholarships must be turned in by August.

Southwest Washington Medical Center (SWWMC) in Vancouver had their DOH inspection in December 2004 and their JCAHO survey was held week of January 25, 2005. Surveyors were very sharp. The last JCAHO interview session started off as a roundtable-type interview and soon turned into a tracer-type investigation. The surveyors went methodically through each step of the way, talking to staff. The surveyors were very, very thorough. The building inspection was also very thorough. SWWMC received a score of 97. Steve Turner (out of Texas) was the assigned Engineering surveyor (strictly Life Safety) and flew in for the one day only.

Mike Chitwood, Geoff Glass and Art Kjos are the SW WSSHE Chapter representatives having dialog with DOH and WSHA about revamping the construction standards for hospitals in Washington -- a big policy decision considering a move toward AIA Guidelines (American Institute of Architects) for Healthcare Construction [a re-write of the 7-year-old WAC requirements]. WSSHE has a group planning to meet on April 27, 2005, at the WSSHE Semi- Annual Conference in Chelan (pre-WSSHE Board Meeting) to discuss with an official from Idaho on how it is/is not working for Idaho (42+ states have adopted the Guidelines). The WSSHE sub-committee will make a recommendation to the WSSHE Board of Directors whether to push for adoption or not. DOH could write amendments to the Guidelines if needed. (i.e.; accept the Guidelines but with specific amendments).

The WSSHE Semi-Annual Conference will be in Chelan, Washington on April 28 and 29, 2005.

Roundtable:

• Gary Welch - In the next two months, Gary is planning to provide some steam trap training and bearing installation training for line staff. “Bearing installation” training should be offered sometime in March and training on “steam traps” will be offered later in the summer. Gary is currently looking for some space to hold the training. More information to follow.
   
• Geoff Glass is looking for someone from SW Chapter to participate on the Annual Education Committee. There will be a meeting after the Chelan conference to begin planning for the Annual in Yakima. The committee is looking for ideas, topics, etc. that might interest the membership. There’s one opening for a SW representative on the committee. (Contact Geoff Glass or Mike Chitwood if interested in participating or if you have education suggestions or ideas).

Prize Drawing:
Two $25.00 Home Depot Gift Cards were provided courtesy of Lorraine Jamilkowski (Hermanson Company). Those in attendance were offered the option of two $25.00 Gift Cards, one for two winners, or both cards for one winner. Those in attendance decided there should be one winner (i.e.; offer the two cards as “one gift” and award to “one” lucky winner). Numbered tickets were distributed and the number drawn belonged to Kevin Krogness. Congratulations, Kevin. Thank you, Lorraine (and company).

Adjournment:
The meeting adjourned at 6:22 p.m.