Cost-effective and low carbon solutions to maintain the thermal

SUCHA BESKIDZKA
Cost-effective and low carbon solutions to maintain the thermal comfort of
patients and staff in the County Hospital in Sucha Beskidzka
Introduction
The County Hospital in Sucha Beskidzka is a partner of the EcoQUIP Project
(www.ecoquip.eu) which aims to deliver efficiency, quality and sustainability in healthcare through the use of innovation procurement. Innovation
procurement is a way of buying goods and services that stimulates the
supply chain to develop better, innovative solutions to meet the unmet
needs or various institutions. EcoQUIP is funded by the European Commission as part of its programme to support the public procurement of
innovative solutions.
The County Hospital in Sucha Beskidzka has identified the needs that might
serve as the groundwork for conducting the above referenced public procurement procedure for innovative solutions. The Hospital most welcomes
the solutions that will facilitate thermal comfort of patients and staff, and so
the cost-effective, innovative and low-carbon solutions are presently being
sought on an open market as the ones that best fit this criterion.
Current situation
The County Hospital in Sucha Beskidzka provides healthcare services for
over 80,000 inhabitants of the Sucha Beskidzka county and also for the
neighbouring counties. The hospital boasts 442 beds in 19 hospital wards.
The majority of patients’ rooms (nearly 70%) are the south-facing ones
and therefore exposed to excessive sunlight, which leads to a build-up of
heat, particularly intense during the summer months. Total surface of the
south-facing elevation of the hospital building covers 2 580 m2, inclusive
of 833,84 m2 of glazing.
The premises located throughout the south-facing side of each of the eight
floors cover 634 m2 of floor space. Particularly high temperatures are recorded in the rooms of the very sick, frequently elderly patients, in post-operative recovery rooms in the orthopaedics and surgical wards, urology
ward and stroke unit premises.
The temperatures recorded in these rooms in summer were up to 29ºC.
The impact of high room temperatures on the staff and patients well-being
and medical equipment are of increasing concern, and there is increasing
evidence that heat-waves are likely to become even more common.
An architectural drawing of the south-facing side of the building constitutes Enclosure No 3 to the present announcement.
Europe has experienced major heat-wave events in recent years - notably
the 2003 event in France and Western Europe and the 2010 heat wave
in Russia and Eastern Europe. Those events had significant impacts on
everyday life of the affected populations, as well caused severe strain
upon existing infrastructure, energy generation, transport, agriculture, and
service delivery. For instance, numerous problems were reported in British
hospitals in August 2003, including equipment failures. The high indoor
temperatures caused staff and patient discomfort and distress, as well as
adversely impacted the actual therapeutic regimen and its outcome .
Reported effects of 2003 heat wave in UK hospitals
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Freezer failure destroying human specimen samples
Staff became unwell from working in an overheated environment
Dehydration of patient
Surgical procedures cancelled due to IT equipment failure
Laboratory work halted due to equipment failures owing to excessively
high temperatures
• Electricity supply network overload due to portable air conditioning
units being used by staff
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded
that, based on observations and climate model projections, heat waves
Kovats R.S., West C., Heat waves: health impacts and acute responses. Chemical Hazards and Poisons
Report. 2005 May; 20-22 referred by: Carmichael C., Bicker G., Kovats S., Pencheon D., Murray V., West C.,
Doyle Y., Overheating and hospitals – what do we know?, Journal of Hospital Administration, 2013, Vol. 2,
No.1.
2
Ibidem.
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are very likely to increase in their frequency and intensity in the near
future. The UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) suggested that
local healthcare provision might be affected, if temperatures in hospital
wards are not effectively controlled, affecting both patient recovery and the
performance of staff.
Diagnosis
The above referenced concerns are reflected in the Ordinance of the
Minister of Public Health, of June 29, 2012, which obligates all health
care providers to install “sun-blocking equipment in the patients’ rooms
exposed to excessive sunlight” by Dec. 31, 2016. We are well aware that
exposure of the patients’ rooms to excessive temperatures not only appreciably diminishes overall comfort of their hospital stay, but may also
adversely impact the actual outcome of the pursued therapeutic regimen.
It is for this reason that our action plan goes well beyond securing mere
compliance with all statutory obligations, but is actually aimed at the very
wellbeing of the patients.
Remedial action
A number of remedial actions has been taken by the County Hospital
in Sucha Beskidzka in an attempt to have this problem resolved. The solutions currently available on the market, however, seem to fall rather short
of specific expectations expressed by the Hospital Board. For example,
even though the installed shutters and blinds provide shading from direct
sunlight, they still fail to address the build-up of excessive heat and also
reduce daylight and obscure the outside views. Air conditioning (AC split
AUX – 5.3 kW) has been installed in some rooms, effectively helping maintain the thermal comfort of patients and staff and reduce equipment failure.
Air conditioning is not without an impact on overall human health, though.
This solution has also proved rather costly in terms of energy consumption
and carbon impact and has therefore been deemed unsustainable in the
medium term. Simulations show that using air conditioning in the rooms
overexposed to direct sunlight would generate annual costs of PLN 93
050 PLN (EUR 23 260). The Hospital therefore keeps on casting around for
some really innovative solutions to address this problem.
Market consultations
The County Hospital in Sucha Beskidzka shall make a market inquiry with
regard to the availability of a solution that would facilitate the following:
cost-effective (on the basis of the calculations made against the entire
product life cycle), low-carbon, well applicable within the existing technological constraints, securing across all hospital wards the environment
SUCHA BESKIDZKA
conducive to patents’ recovery, as well as enhancing overall performance
of medical staff, effectively protecting the patients from excessive sunlight, whilst instrumental in maintaining thermal comfort of both patients
and staff, and securing optimum working environment for the hospital
equipment.
In line with good practice in public procurement of innovative solutions
the County Hospital in Sucha Beskidzka is presently launching a market
engagement scheme ahead of the actual commencement of the formal procurement procedure to communicate to the potential suppliers the nature
of their requirements, with a view to jointly exploring the existing potential
for having this problem resolved and possibly determine the specific solutions or a combination of solutions that could effectively address all the
identified needs.
The market engagement scheme is to consist of a period of market sounding where potential manufacturers, suppliers and stakeholders such as
trade organisations shall duly be asked to register their interest by completing a short market-sounding questionnaire. This is to be subsequently
followed by a market consultation workshop and networking event, whereupon any potentially interested suppliers will be availed of an opportunity
to find out more about the Hospital’s specific requirements, as well as through interacting with other suppliers appreciably contribute to the actual
development of the procurement specification and procedural constraints
to be eventually adopted. Following the conclusion of the market engagement in the Spring of 2014, the Hospital shall commence the formal public
procurement procedure for the required solutions.
mation regarding the public procurement procedure shall be made
available to other hospitals participating in the EcoQUIP project. They
shall also be released through the project newsletter and other materials
(including the project website), presented and discussed at various
conferences and meetings of prject participants, as well as duly
submitted for the attention of the European Commission.
The procedure
The County Hospital in Sucha Beskidzka intends to commence business
talks with potential suppliers (or consortia of suppliers) aimed at finding
a feasible solution to provide thermal comfort for patients and personnel
of the Hospital. Preliminary information on the project has already been
released in the Official Journal of the European Union.
County Hospital in Sucha Beskidzka declares its commitment to making
use of the innovative approach in any future public procurement procedures for goods and services.
Wider market
During a series of consultations with other hospitals and other public organisations it was determined that the requirements articulated by the County
Hospital are actually common to many other hospitals. In line with the
above referenced Ordinance of the Minister of Public Health all healthcare
providers are duly obligate to have the ‘sun-blocking equipment’ in place
by the end of 2016. We hope that the solution purchased through our procurement procedure shall set a high standard which will ensure thermal
Contact persons
In Polish:
mgr inż. Monika Kubasiak, tel. (+48) 33 872 34 21
e-mail: moku@zozsuchabeskidzka.pl
Sabina Steczek, tel. (+48) 33 872 31 11;
e-mail: sast@zozsuchabeskidzka.pl
In English:
Mateusz Lichoń, tel. (+48) 668 312 900;
e-mail: mateusz.lichon@zozsuchabeskidzka.pl
Deadline for the submission of applications: February 17, 2014.
comfort of patients and personnel in many health care facilities. Further
below there is a list of hospitals which have already declared interest in the
results of the works undertaken by our Team:
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Chrzanów County Hospital
The E. Szczeklik Hospital in Tarnów
Myślenice County Hospital
Oświęcim County Hospital
The John Paul II Hospital in Kraków
University Hospital in Kraków
Voivodeship Children’s Hospital in Kraków
Wadowice County Hospital
The present listing is certain to be augmented by more health care
facilities in due course, as we plan to advise other hospitals on the
progress of the project implementation on a current basis.Infor-
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