By Healthcare Facilities Today

Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI), Englewood, Colo., will use multiple strategies to cut energy use by $11 million to $17 million across its 87 acute care hospitals by July 2015, according to an article on the Health Facilities Management website.

CHI will recommission and upgrade HVAC systems in the least efficient hospitals and expand the program as funds are available, according to a CHI facility management executive.

The first facility to undergo improvements was St. Vincent Medical Center North, Sherwood, Ark., after the facility was identified as having an especially high energy usage rate. St. Vincent hired energy engineers who determined that adjusting fan motors, installing economizers and adjusting ventilation rates, especially when the facility's cath labs and ORs are unoccupied, would cut costs.

According to the article, St. Vincent will serve as a model as the program expands to other hospitals. While recommissioning is the largest segment of CHI's strategy, it also is implementing other actions to improve energy use in all of its facilities, which are located in 18 states.

National Information Solutions Cooperative, a service of HealthTrust, CHI's purchasing group, accounts for the health care system's utility obligations bills and also gathers energy usage data for CHI to analyze. The data will enable CHI to establish a national energy management initiative utilizing dashboards to monitor the energy consumption at all of its hospitals, the article said. CHI has also engaged an energy consulting firm to analyze its utility bills.

Read the article.