Healthcare Hero: Oregon hospital deploys GE's Entellisys® low–voltage switchgear for safety features, optimal uptime
CLEVELAND — Smith Seckman Reid, one of the nation's largest multi-–service engineering consulting firms, collaborated with GE Consumer & Industrial's Electrical Distribution business to help Salem Hospital of Salem, Oregon, recognize how to better protect electricians and maintenance staff from arc flash hazards, and how to streamline power management, increase uptimes and provide significant cost savings.
"In the past 10 years, the healthcare industry—my primary focus in the engineering world—has migrated toward an integrated system approach that's similar to building automation or pumping systems for HVAC," says Tony Johnson, senior electrical engineer, Smith Seckman Reid.
"As the cost of healthcare increases, and hospitals continually look for ways to cut costs, healthcare decision–makers will often find they can reduce or reassign maintenance staff because Entellisys® has the ability to automate expertise and gather information. Our healthcare customers need to possess the capability to retrieve data from a desktop computer and not have to dispatch personnel to read a gauge on an instrument. Salem Hospital, for instance, has received Entellisys® with open arms."
Smith Seckman Reid and Salem Hospital are familiar with Entellisys®, since the solution was first installed about a year ago at the hospital's Central Energy Plant. Impressed with the solution, Salem selected Entellisys® for its Phase 2 development, the New Patient Tower, set to open in Spring 2009.
"This project at Salem Hospital is the first example of a client basically just being wowed with the technology, and coming to grips with all the functionality Entellisys® provides," says Johnson.
Salem Hospital's campus–style environment, with requirements for various critical functions, lends itself well to a power management system, contends Johnson. With the deployment of Entellisys® in Salem Hospital's Phase 2, the solution can tie into one network to give electrical equipment operators the ability to monitor and control both Entellisys® sites from a single location.
"Entellisys® provides solutions this customer needed," notes Jud Meyer, specification engineer, GE Consumer & Industrial. "Through its remote operation functionality, integrated with bus–differential protection, the solution offers big advances in safety features, flexibility and reliability compared with standard approaches. Entellisys® helps Salem Hospital meet OSHA requirements, while providing greater protection from arc flash. It also offers truly remote diagnostics."
Understanding and dealing with arc flash hazards
"Each owner and facility operator I collaborate with is very concerned about arc flash and enhancing the safety of personnel," comments Johnson.
Arc flash is associated with the release of energy when electrical insulation or isolation between conductors is broken or can no longer withstand the applied voltage. The heat generated from a switchgear arc flash can be up to 4 times higher than the surface temperature of the sun, and the energy released can result in serious injuries or fatalities.
By design, Entellisys® empowers electrical professionals to reduce exposure risks by moving their work well outside the volatile arc flash energy zone. This is a major stride forward. According to the National Fire Protection Association and the IEEE—two international non–profit organizations concerned about the arc flash phenomena and electrical safety standards—each year more than 2,000 people in the United States (about 5 every day) are treated in burn centers with severe arc flash injuries.
"Arc flash hazard is a major issue today," says Meyer. "And smarter solutions such as Entellisys® can really make a difference."
Entellisys'® advanced protection options include the industry's first cost–effective implementation of bus differential (ANSI 87B) on low–voltage switchgear. Bus differential provides true zone–based protection and detects faults that range from less than the bus rating to the full short–circuit rating of the equipment. Entellisys® does this in minimum time, clearing faults faster; it is 100–percent selective all of the time.
Until the introduction of Entellisys®, operators always needed to take cumbersome precautions (e.g., suiting up in personal protection equipment) to prepare for a possible arc flash. PPE requirements are significantly reduced with an Entellisys® system at work.
"For over 30 years, low–voltage switchgear has improved incrementally with the addition of special–purpose hardware and point–to–point wiring to individual breakers," says Jane Barber, electrical distribution product manager, GE Consumer & Industrial. "Traditional low–voltage switchgear incorporates complex breakers that are islands of intelligence–they are hard to get to and to interact with. Entellisys® changes all this."
The Near–Gear Human–Machine Interface (HMI) can be placed up to 250 feet from the lineup, which is generally far outside the flash protection boundary. The near gear consists of a stand–alone stack or wall mounted enclosure with a touch–screen interface to the system. It allows operators to interact with the Entellisys® system. The HMI is a window into the system while the protection, control and other functionality is handled by the central processing units in the equipment.
The remote Entellisys® software user interface package provides electrical equipment operators and other designated personnel secure access to the system via networked desktops and laptops. In addition, Entellisys® can provide alarm information and reports to users via e–mail or messages to their PDAs or other digital devices. Additionally, Entellisys® offers a remote racking device to eliminate the need for operators to face a moving breaker during rack–out or rack–in.
"I come from the iPod generation," says Russ Murdock, electrical engineer, Smith Seckman Reid. "Our generation wants things innovative, slick, simple and efficient. The Entellisys® has all these qualities and more … it just works."
Entellisys® permits operators to change the energy let–through levels by simply pressing a button. Couple this, notes Johnson, with the ability to remote rack–out circuit breakers, and customers can significantly reduce safety hazards to operators.
Redundancy plus flexibility equals optimal uptimes
According to Johnson, reliability within Entellisys® is based on the low–voltage switchgear solution having no single point of failure and built–in redundancy, clearly demonstrated with the redundant software technology, the communication systems, CPUs, UPS and other elements of the solution.
"One of the reasons Salem Hospital likes Entellisys® is because of its flexibility," says Murdock. "They live with their systems on a day–to–day basis and understand that any equipment failure or resulting services required typically produce downtime, hassles and lost productivity. They recognize what Entellisys® means to them in terms of uptime and dollars saved."
According to Murdock, on–site electricians welcome the system's ease of installation. The new Entellisys® design has fewer parts–less than 50 percent of the wiring found in typical switchgear–which simplifies installation and overall upkeep and maintenance.
"Using Entellisys® from an operator's perspective is simple," says Johnson. "You can walk up and scroll through menus, images and icons easily. Its graphical interface is custom built to suit the actual installation."
"These engineers understand the simplicity of Entellisys'® base design," says Meyer. Breakers of 2000 amps or smaller in any design are completely interchangeable to a lower rated compartment so just one breaker frame type is needed as a spare. The only downtime is the time it takes to put a breaker in a location. Meyer notes, "The intelligence resides at the cubicle and not within the trip unit of a circuit breaker."
Simple design saves labor costs
According to Johnson, Entellisys® can immediately save customers money because the design is simple and flexible.
"As an engineer I'm not restricted by certain size cubicles, certain size equipment and layout," says Johnson. "I can basically move things around as the need arises. Entellisys® should save money on the installation simply because it is a modular assembly and doesn't require miles and miles of wiring. We view it from the design world as plug–and–play."
GE is ever–present for any questions or concerns Johnson needs to express.
"Throughout my 30–year relationship with GE I have always been comfortable calling them for help or assistance when I needed it—on the local or corporate level," says Johnson. "GE has always come through for me."
About Smith Seckman Reid
At Smith Seckman Reid (SSR), more than 480 professionals deliver design and facility consulting services to clients throughout the United States. Licensed in 41 states and having worked on projects in more than 10 foreign countries SSR's projects range in size from small renovations to multiple building and infrastructure projects exceeding hundreds of millions of dollars. Founded in 1968 and headquartered in Nashville, SSR has 10 branch offices in six states. SSR is ranked 8th among consulting engineers by Building Design & Construction magazine and 174th among design firms in the United States by ENR magazine. For more information please visit www.ssr-inc.com.
About Salem Hospital
Salem Hospital Regional Health Services is one of the largest of Oregon's 57 acute care hospitals and operates the busiest emergency department in Oregon. A not–for–profit hospital, licensed for 454 acute–care beds, and guided by a 15–member volunteer Board of Trustees, Salem Hospital is the city's largest private employer, with approximately 3,500 full– and part–time employees. There are 465 physicians on the active medical staff, representing 46 different specialties, who admit patients to the hospital. More than 275 volunteers provide non–medical support for the hospital. For more information please visit www.salemhospital.org.
GE Consumer & Industrial spans the globe as an industry leader in major appliance, lighting and integrated industrial equipment, systems and services. Providing solutions for commercial, industrial and residential use in more than 100 countries, GE Consumer & Industrial uses innovative technologies and "ecomagination," a GE initiative to aggressively bring to market new technologies that help customers and consumers meet pressing environmental challenges, to deliver comfort, convenience and electrical protection and control. General Electric (NYSE: GE) brings imagination to work, selling products under the Monogram®, Profile™ GE®, Hotpoint®, SmartWater™ Reveal®, Edison™ and Energy Smart™ consumer brands, and Entellisys™ industrial brand. For more information, consumers may visit www.ge.com.
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