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A Sustainable Future is Promised
by Children’s Hospital in
Pittsburgh
by Beth Leibson Hawkins
As one of the 10 best pediatric hospitals in the country, the
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Children’s
Hospital had a reputation to keep up. And it had a leadership mandate
to go green, according to Eric Hess, assistant to the CEO. But,
more immediately, it had an overcrowded and outdated facility to
revamp.
Believing that the best healthcare is sustainability
focused, Children’s Hospital approached Astorino, a
Pittsburgh-based architectural, engineering, interior design,
and design build-services firm, for a solution. After extensive
discussions, the hospital decided to relocate to a new campus,
the former site of a now-defunct healthcare system. It determined
that some buildings would be built anew while others would
be renovated and expanded for new uses. And it decided to
go green with the two new buildings on its newly relocated
$575 million, 10-acre campus. The goal is to have the new
buildings certified by Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED), says Hess. |
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LEED, developed by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC)
is not the only approach to sustainability certification. However,
it is the industry standard, explains Catherine T. Sheane, Astorino’s
Sustainable Design Manager. To gain LEED certifications, projects
must accrue a certain number of poitns in five categories—sustainable
sites, energy and atmosphere, water efficiency, indoor environmental
quality, and materials and resources—thus ensuring across-the-board
commitment to sustainability. “LEED certification is a way
to demonstrate that the facility has met certain sustainability
benchmarks,” says Sheane, “rather than just saying, ‘we
have a green building’.”
Children’s Hospital is excited about its anticipated LEED
certification because of the environmental benefits that will accrue. “We
are not doing this for financial reasons,” says Hess, though
he does expect the campus to benefit from resulting increased efficiencies.
That determined the next step was to assess the priorities of patients,
families and staff members. Based on the premise that people only
articulate five percent of their feelings, Astorino conducted 30
one-on-one in-depth interviews and gathered additional information
through shadowing and observation, visual documentation, storytelling
and journaling, collages, metaphors, sensory analysis, color theory,
architectural principles, and spatial and form analysis. Astorino
employed this information to establish design priorities and build
consensus prior to starting on architectural drawings. On a fundamental
and metaphoric level, participants spoke about the ideal hospital
as a transformative experience, providing a “sense of renewal” as
one employee noted.
From renovated and expanded to new buildings
UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh campus will contain
two new buildings, a nine-story Clinical Services Building and
a 10-story John G. Rangos Sr. Research Center, as well as several
renovated and expanded facilities from the abandoned healthcare
campus. These two buildings will represent 80% of the new campus’s
square footage, adds Hess.
The renovated facilities include a 75,000-sq.ft.-administration
building, a 130,000-sq.ft.-faculty pavilion, a 6,500-sq.ft. data
center, a central plant, a former assisted living facility turned
patient/family housing, and several above- and below-ground parking
structures offering approximately 1,400 parking spaces.
The Clinical Services Building will consist of nine floors of outpatient
facilities and inpatient private rooms, with overnight accommodations
for parents. The 302 licensed beds will include a 41-bed emergency
and trauma center and a 79-bed critical care unit. The nursing
stations for every two patient rooms will use a paperless system
that will eliminate difficulties with illegible writing, transcription
errors, unsigned orders and delays in communicating orders.
To enhance patient safety and care, nearly half of the operating
suites (six of 13) will be able to accommodate minimally invasive
procedures. All operating services will be located on one floor,
including the operating suites, a catheterization laboratory, interventional
radiology, a procedures center and an infusion center. In addition,
an integrated life support system will connect physiological monitoring
and the nurse call system to wireless phones, keeping caregivers
in constant contact with patients and their current conditions.
The center of the facility will be the 5,000-sq.ft. roof-top Healing
Garden that will connect the clinical services building and the
research facility. The Clinical Services Building is targeted for
LEED certification.
Every effort made to ensure quiet healing
“Research also shows that a quiet hospital environment enhances patient
healing and sastisfaction among healthcare provicers,” says Hess. For
this reason, Children’s Hospital will use more than 30 measures
to reduce noise in patient areas, public spaces, conference rooms,
lounges, and consultation rooms. These measures will include masonry
exterior walls at most patient rooms; floor-to-deck full-height
partitions, sealed and insulated; multi-layer drywall partitions
at patient rooms; acoustic ceiling tiles in lieu of hard ceilings;
careful layout of staff work areas, consult rooms, and central
plant; sound-deadened elevator cab enclosures; extensive use of
vibration isolators; cast iron piping for storm and sanitray stacks;
use of personal communications devices in lieu of overhead paging;
silent notification of nurse calls and alarms through wireless
communication devices; and soft wheels on mobile carts.
The 10-story, 300,000-sq.ft.-John G. Rangos, Sr. Research Center
will house medical research activities in seven stories, as well
as a conference center, child care center, fitness center and family
housing. Research facilities are organized around a linear equipment
room that serves all laboratories, which are laid out to promote
interaction and collaboration across disciplines. In designing
the laboratory spaces, Astorino worked with laboratory architects
Tsoi/Kobus and Associates and lab planners GPR Planners Collaborative.
Serving as the Research Center’s hub, the third floor will
house the campus conference center, including a 270-seat auditorium
with video- and teleconferencing capabilities. Above will be the
vivarium with animal holding rooms and visioning suites with fMRI,
mPET, mCT, and ultrasound diagnostic tools. The remaining floors
will contain research and office facilities for 66 researchers
and flexible workstations for as many as 700 additional staff.
The research building is targeted for silver-level LEED certification.
Campus uses post-consumer, post-industrial materials
Recycling is a key to going green, believes Hess. The campus will
use building materials with recycled content, including almost
100% recycled post-consumer structural steel. In addition, Children’s
Hospital will use some concrete, aluminum roofing, sheetrock,
and linoleum flooring with both post-consumer and post-industrial
content.
To improve indoor air quality (IAQ), the Hospital will use low-VOC
sealants, adhesives, paints and carpets. Composite wood will contain
no formaldehyde. And the hospital will minimize mercury content
in equipment and lighting, including vinyl-content finishes.
HVAC will address both IAQ and efficiency concerns through a bifurcated
system. Offices will use an energy-efficient HVAC system with re-circulating
air handling system. The laboratories will have a separate system,
which will provide 100% outside air to avoid re-circulating air
with potential contaminants. In addition, Children’s Hospital
will reduce mercury through HVAC system switches.
Children’s Hospital will also use Digital Addressable Lighting
Interface (DALI), a standard that defines how ballasts have to
perform, typically digital ballasts. Under this system, hospital
ballasts are dimmable, individually addressable, and interoperable
with controls that are compatible with the same protocol. Day lighting
sensors will ensure that ballasts do not provide redundant light,
says Sheane.
An integrated system contractor will oversee all low-voltage, network-driven
systems, including structural cabling, networking, building automation,
data, telecommunications, security, and fire alarms. By having
one contractor responsible for all of these systems, Children’s
Hospital will enjoy systems integration efficiencies and single-source
responsibility.
The hospital is also committed to reducing transportation costs
by using local and regional construction materials whenever possible
and encouraging staff and patients to find alternative means to
travel. To this end, the hospital offers easy access to public
transportation as well as bike racks and showers and preferred
parking for car pools.
Even the public art program at will emphasize sustainability.
Its guiding committee is charged with finding pieces that use sustainable
and/or recycled materials—and with presenting the artwork
in a way that educates the public about the importance of environmentally
sound practices.
Technology is integral to the entire campus in order to improve
patient care, reduce human error, enhance security, and provide
operating efficiencies to manage costs effectively. Infrastructure
services will include 100% secure Internet availability, campus-wide
wireless data network for clinical and non-clinical applications,
and an uninterruptible power source. The cell phone-friendly campus
will also feature a campus-wide wireless phone system.
Finally, Children’s Hospital is making a commitment to operate
along green principles. To this end, the hospital is working with
a local university, Carnegie Mellon, to analyze its operations
and identify opportunities to focus on sustainability issues. As
a result of this collaboration, Children’s Hospital plans
to institute green cleaning processes, establish a system for recycling
laboratory waste such as alcohol and other potentially toxic chemicals,
and develop environmentally preferred purchasing models so that
sustainability concerns enter into all major purchases.
Looking to the future
Children’s Hospital plans to take advantage of the recently
created $5 million “green action fund” to support new
environmental initiatives across the UPMC health system. The goal
of the fund is to advance environmentally sustainable practices
that may not be economically viable.
All renderings courtesy of Children's Hospital |
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Children’s Hospital anticipates using these funds
for projects such as installation of energy-efficient heating,
cooling, and electrical equipment; replacement of plumbing
valves and fixtures to reduce water consumption; removal of
building materials that contain PVC (polyvinyl chloride); and
replacement of various products and chemicals used daily in
the hospitals to reduce sources of toxicity, according to Hess.
Even before creation of this new fund, UPMC had supported such
environmental efforts as the building of one of the first environmentally
sustainable pediatric hospitals. |
Thus far, the new campus is right on schedule. Hess anticipates
occupancy in fall 2008, starting with the office buildings, then
getting the research facilities up and running, and finally opening
the hospital doors over a six- to seven-month period. “We are looking forward
to our new home,” he says.
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