It was a pleasure to be a part of the IHEA NSW/ACT Branch Conference in Wollongong from 23 - 24 March. We spoke to many about the issues facing the healthcare building industry; reducing operating and project costs as well as energy usage, and the importance of interoperability and inclusive building automation and energy management systems to achieve increased efficiencies and increased profitability.

Healthy Assets and Innovation

The 2018 IHEA NSW/ACT Branch Conference took place on 23 - 24th March at the Sage Hotel in Wollongong, NSW. An impressive number of participants attended the conference, from metropolitan and country NSW, major public hospitals of the ACT, including both public and private sectors. There were health care and specialised experts, industry providers and representatives from associated asset, facility and engineering agencies, as well as the technical speakers covering the theme “Healthy Assets and Innovation”.

We took the opportunity to talk to healthcare industry members, engineers, healthcare facility managers, industry professionals and service providers who had come to see what was available and learn about how others manage their facilities and how to do it right.

Reducing costs and energy usage

The common theme we spoke to attendees about was the issues facing the healthcare building industry; reducing operating costs and energy usage, and the importance of interoperability and inclusive building automation and energy management systems to achieve this. It was great to see the lightbulb go off when we explained how using a BMS would make their jobs so much easier by automating and providing visibility to their control systems.

We also spoke to many about managing projects and assets throughout their full lifecycle, to ensure that every asset achieves its full possible potential. With a full lifecycle management overview you understanding the complete process involved with facility projects and asset management, with this in mind, we know there are opportunities to uncover at every step to save time, energy and $$. The rolling benefit of this being condition-based maintenance which results in reduced asset and system faults, asset downtime, and the time and costs involved in repair works.

To be able to manage facility performance, you need a BMS that acts as a single interface and caters for different types of data in a way that is easy for staff to collect, update, understand and use. It should connect you to real-time data so you can proactively plan and make decisions. The end results will be better-informed decisions, increased efficiencies and increased profitability that come from aligning facility management into a single system.

Thank you

A huge thank you to organising committee, all branch members, the national board and all conference attendees. It was fantastic to see so many people at the IHEA NSW/ACT Branch Conference who were keen to learn best practice for facility management.

If you would like to know what an improvement a BMS could bring to your facility management and performance, contact us today!