Hospitals

[zog]

Had another emergency at a hospital today, good lord, who designs and (not) maintains these places? I have spent time in every type of industrial facility, from steel mills to victoria secert distribution and hospitals are by far the most ill maintained systems anywhere, makes me scared to be admitted to one without my own power source. It is the same all over the country.

End rant. Just shocked as usual after a hospital job.

 

[Buck Parrish]

I agree,
Duke still requires all the joints be soldered and taped. No wire nuts. And a buchanan tool used on the grounds.

 

[jumper]

Had another emergency at a hospital today, good lord, who designs and (not) maintains these places? I have spent time in every type of industrial facility, from steel mills to victoria secert distribution and hospitals are by far the most ill maintained systems anywhere, makes me scared to be admitted to one without my own power source. It is the same all over the country.

End rant. Just shocked as usual after a hospital job.

Interesting. I would have thought that maintaining power systems would have been important to hospitals, given their function as emergency care.

I have never worked in one and I was surprised to read this thread. Shows how little I know.

 

[zog]

Look at this transformer, this was part of thier critical power system, one of the poorest maintained transformers I have seen. Also, 90% of thier relays were bad, and none of thier main breakers (And most of the feeders) failed testing. Thier main for thier emergency generator would not close either.

1st photo shows excessive dirt, broken insulators, and damaged insulation. 2nd photo is the core ground, which was damaged.

 

[jumper]

Look at this transformer, this was part of thier critical power system, one of the poorest maintained transformers I have seen. Also, 90% of thier relays were bad, and none of thier main breakers (And most of the feeders) failed testing. Thier main for thier emergency generator would not close either.

1st photo shows excessive dirt, broken insulators, and damaged insulation. 2nd photo is the core ground, which was damaged.

Note to self: If visiting Zog, do not end up in local hospital.

 

[Karl H]

I also, have had the same thoughts when working in hospitals.
If I ever have to go to a hospital for health reasons, I'm going to
bring my own UPS.

 

[jim dungar]

I regularly hear, we run 24/7 we can't afford to shut down for maintenance.

I understand the major hospital accredidation group (called Joint Commission or JHACO) is starting to evaluate facility engineering along with the 'normal paperwork'.

 

[zog]

I regularly hear, we run 24/7 we can't afford to shut down for maintenance.

I hear the same thing, the rare times we do get a shutdown it is a nightmare working around the surgery schedule. We always are waiting for a surgery to finish before we can start and always get a tight window to do the work.

I understand the major hospital accredidation group (called Joint Commission or JHACO) is starting to evaluate facility engineering along with the 'normal paperwork'.

I ran into one of the head guys for this program this summer at a maintenence conference, the concept is great but he said they are having a hard time getting the independents to buy into it.

 

[skeshesh]

Out here in CA we have a kind of a secondary fire marshal authority for hospitals called OSHPD. They focus on structural (mostly seismic stuff), electrical and life safety. Their standards are pretty stringent (most people I know dislike them quite a bit but I don't really mind). The problem is that a lot of facilities were built before they existed and renovation projects are just a nightmare. The medical facilities people that I've met though are generally understand the need to improve their electrical systems. It's an old problem with electrical systems though, since the whole electrical system was pretty much a "design build" kind of an animal early in the last century where things changed as electrical applications were developed throughout the last century. I'm optimistic though since going forward we do have much more solid standards.

Good stuff with the pics though Zog, it is pretty scary indeed.