WATER CONSERVATION AT MONTGOMERY GENERAL HOSPITAL

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WATER CONSERVATION AT MONTGOMERY GENERAL
HOSPITAL

• Odell Hall, HEM, CHSP, CHFM
• Director Of Facilities, Safety Security

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Overview of Montgomery General Hospital

• 162 Licensed Beds
• 314,000 sq ft
• 1,261 Employees
• Part of MedStar Health

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Water Conservation  

• Water conservation means different things to
  different people. It can be as simple as turning
  off faucets when not in use or as sophisticated
  as buildings designed to recycle nearly all of
  their water.
• Common denominator is Conservation. When it
  comes to water use, hospitals need to look at all
  facets of their business, including what
  equipment is being used and where.

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TYPICAL NORTHEAST MID-SIZE ACUTE CARE
HOSPITALWATER USE (MILLION GALLONS /
YEAR) Domestic
Water Use Profile
Bathrooms 14 Non -
Domestic Cooling Towers 4 Boilers /
Chillers 1.5 Food Services
2.3 Sterile Processing 5 Radiology
3.5 Analytical Labs
1.5 Pure Water Systems 4.3 Medical Air
4 Irrigation
2.3 Misc. 2

Figure 1
 
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Water Conservation Project at MGH

• Partnered with H2O Applied Technologies (Formerly
  H2O Matrix)
• Conducted audit
• Developed business case/ROI/payback period
• Phased in program elements
• Measured and evaluated success

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Overview of Areas Addressed in Project

• Repairs
• Low flush devices
• Sterilizers
• Kitchen dish machine and tray wash
• Film processors
• Medical air compressors
• Medical vacuum pumps

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• Installed Cost 43,000
• Low flow shower heads can also be installed to
  help reduce water used (2.8 gal / min to 2.1 gal
  / min).
• Annual Water Savings 3,000,000 gal / year
• Annual Dollar Savings 26,700 / year
• Water Conserving Measures Payback 1.6 years

Low-Flow Toilets and Faucets
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Sterilizers

• Installed Cost 39,500
• A system was installed on the Sterilizers that
  converted water flow from a continuous basis to
  an intermittent basis as needed for steam
  condensate cooling.
• Annual Water savings 4.1 M gal / year
• Annual Dollar Savings 36,474 / year
• Water Conserving Measures Payback 1.1 years

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KitchenDish Machine Tray Wash Station

• Installed cost 9,300
• Installation of a control system, timers and
  nozzles to automatically shut off water to wash
  nozzles and the garbage disposal during non-use
  periods. On the dishwasher a flow control system
  upstream of the rinse nozzles to accurately
  control rinse water flow were also installed.
• Annual Water Savings 939,120 gal / year
• Annual Dollar Savings 8,425 / year
• Water Conserving Measures Payback 1.1 years

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RadiologyFilm Processors

• Installed cost 3,000
• Film processors were retrofitted to reduce water
  flow (Digital Imaging now eliminates this issue).
• Annual Water Savings 157,248 gal / year
• Annual Dollar Savings 1,411 / year
• Water Conserving Measures Payback 2.1 years

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Medical Air Compressors Vacuum Pumps

• Installed Cost 17,500
• Replaced the existing water cooled pump with a
  waterless oil cooled pump.
• Annual Water Savings 1,949,220 gal / year
• Annual Dollar Savings 17,485 / year
• Water Conserving Measures Payback 1.0 years

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Summary of Water Savings
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Resources on Water Conservation

• American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE
  E2C Initiative) www.ashe.org/ashe/facilities/e2c
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S.
  Department of Energy (Energy Star Program)
  www.energystar.gov or U.S. Department of Energy
  (Energy Smart Hospitals Initiative)
  www.leerg.energy.gov/building/energysmarthospitals
  
• H2O Applied Technologies www.h2oappliedtech.com
• Practice Greenhealth www.practicegreenhealth.org
• Green Guide for Healthcare www.gghc.org

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• This project has reduced consumption and waste by
  nearly 10 million gallons of water annually as
  well as achieving a guaranteed savings of 90,495
  in the first year and a 10 year aggregate savings
  of 864,120.00 (a return on Investment of 82 and
  an escalated payback of 1.25 years).
• There are other issues to keep in mind with water
  conservation and these issues center around
  repairing leaks, replacing worn or bad valves,
  educating your users to simply shut off faucets
  completely and rounding in departments to uncover
  bad habits (i.e., kitchen staff running water
  to thaw out food).

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• We continue to investigate other avenues to
  conserve water including upgrades/replacements of
  less efficient equipment, educating our users on
  water conservation to help reduce consumption and
  waste, installing cooling tower water filtration
  systems, use of dual-flush toilets, installing
  automatic flush valves, and use of waterless
  urinals in public restrooms and find other
  creative ways to recycle and/or reuse some of our
  water.