Power is the beating heart of a healthcare facility. Without it, the hospital, surgical center or aging facility cannot function. The challenge of delivering reliable power is compounded by aging infrastructure, inefficient power distribution systems and thin operating margins. Given the critical nature of reliable power in delivering a safe, healthy, clinical environment, healthcare facilities must embrace modern, connected technologies to improve efficiency and financial health without compromising patient care.

IoT-enabled Care

Advanced technologies, in particular, the Internet of Things (IoT), can help healthcare facilities meet their power needs. Beyond the more obvious trends in wearables and machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, IoT is gaining adoption as a means for improving facility management and operation. Connected devices feed data to building, IT, power, security and clinical management systems to create intelligent hospital systems.

Within a healthcare infrastructure environment, IoT-enabled devices can take many forms: temperature sensors, power meters, circuit breaker panels, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) devices, building automation controllers and more. When integrated with software and analytics as part of an intelligent solution, these devices provide the means by which healthcare facilities can monitor energy use, reduce energy costs, monitor equipment performance, improve predictive maintenance, ensure available backup power and much more.

Trends in healthcare IoT

An important trend in healthcare IoT is the convergence of information technology (IT) – the computer systems and networks that store and manage business data – and operational technology (OT) – the hardware and software required to manage staff, resources, equipment and facilities. This convergence can promote greater efficiencies and productivity and reduces costs across industries.

This trend is significant as it is leading to greater use and ROI of connected infrastructure devices. These IoT-enabled devices provide embedded intelligence and control, can often be controlled and monitored via cloud, and with the help of software, can provide advanced data analytics.

In new facilities, this convergence will be built into the design plans, allowing for optimal technology interoperability. In aging facilities, a technology layer will update legacy infrastructure, making it future-ready. In both cases, IoT-enabled solutions can be leveraged to deliver real-time visibility into the facilities’ power distribution systems to ensure the reliable power necessary for facility processes, patient and staff safety, energy efficiency and financial health.

Intelligent power distribution and management for healthcare

IT/OT convergence relies on a secure, open, scalable, and flexible IoT platform that connects three core layers of technology—connected products, monitoring and control software, and apps and analytics. These technologies combine to create intelligent power distribution that delivers power quality and reliability.

In a healthcare environment, this may include:

• Electrical distribution through smart panels

• Metering to measure power consumption and power quality

• Monitoring using a system that offers real-time data on power use and quality

• Fault detection including automatic alerts of electrical faults

• Automatic generator or emergency power supply system (EPSS) testing, which is mandatory for health facilities in many countries

• Operating theater environment monitoring where loss of power can have life or death consequence

Because of the critical nature of hospital power, an IoT-enabled power monitoring system can be used to provide automated testing of a facility’s emergency power supply. An EPSS test can collect data from and control key assets in the systems – generators and automatic transfer switches (ATS) – and test these assets regularly to confirm optimal operation and a reliable backup power system for the hospital and patients. This not only increases reliability due to the accurate monitoring and recording of test parameters, it greatly reduces the burden on staff to conduct such tests.

Smart panels provide another means of intelligent power management. Essentially a circuit breaker and meter in one, smart panels make it possible for electrical equipment to communicate about power usage quality and asset status from a digital screen within the panel or a remotely connected device. Facility managers can monitor energy information, as well as physical properties, including trip status, cycle count, and contact wear indicators. Smart panels enable remote management of electrical distribution assets in different locations across a hospital campus or a distributed health system.

Powering Facility Processes

Since even a momentary power failure can have serious consequences for patients, secure power is fundamental to a healthcare facility’s processes – both medical and nonmedical. Critical medical processes within a healthcare facility carry the highest risk in terms of a power outage. Operating rooms, emergency departments, and intensive care units rely on commercial loads (computers and servers) and industrial loads (medical gas systems and scanners), all of which require continuous power quality.

Critical nonmedical processes involve management of patient data systems, electronic medical records, physical and data security, IT management software and more. Medical staff must have consistent, quick access to the IT system and reliable power for backup procedures and archiving making critical power and cooling fundamental to supporting nonmedical processes.

Safety First and Always

Patient safety is of paramount concern for every healthcare facility. Uninterrupted access to power can mean the difference between life and death. Hospitals and surgical centers need constant, reliable power to feed medical instruments, life support machines, and diagnostic equipment. Reliable power is critical to ensure these functions run smoothly in order to provide adequate care and ensure patient satisfaction.

IoT-enabled solutions can monitor the power status of critical loads and provide system data to staff via easy-to-read dashboards. For example, operating theater environment monitoring provides real-time information on power status, room temperature and more, from one screen. In the event that a power fault occurs, nurses and surgeons can quickly assess the electrical health within the operating room and determine if they have enough power to continue the surgery. Additionally, insulation monitoring system information helps protect patients from electrical shocks. With these tools, healthcare professionals have the information they need to prevent operating room downtime and ensure patient and staff safety.

Protect Equipment and Financial Health

In addition to patient and staff safety, the primary concern for facility and operations managers is resiliency and availability of power equipment. And for good reason. If a 200-bed hospital experiences a power outage and its backup generator solution fails, the cost is $1 million, and that costs increases to $5 million for a 500-bed hospital.¹

Power equipment is costly and is not easily replaceable, especially in older facilities. IoT technology helps these facilities keep legacy systems, while identifying new opportunities for cost reduction. Retrofitting old transformers with sensing technology can help prevent failures in the future. IoT-enabled devices can monitor power equipment for power quality, asset status and more and automatically provide notifications if an irregularity is detected, enabling maintenance staff to address problems before a failure can occur.

A power monitoring system can reduce potential financial risk by maximizing power availability and performance. It can help reduce electrical maintenance costs and optimize power distribution and availability to help support operational efficiency and minimize the impact of power events on a facility’s function, reputation and finances.

With an asset performance management solution in place, hospitals can expect to reduce maintenance costs by 25-30 percent, eliminate equipment breakdown by 70-75 percent, and reduce equipment downtime due to failure by 35-45 percent.²

Improve Energy Efficiency

Hospitals consume large amounts of energy because they operate 24/7, use energy-intensive equipment and have specialized HVAC needs. Beyond medical services, these facilities engage in other energy-intensive work like food service and refrigeration, computer and server use, and laundry.

For healthcare organizations already operating on razor thin margins, energy efficiency is a clear area of focus for cost reduction. With the right technology in place, even the most sustainably-minded organization can uncover energy efficiencies within its power distribution system.

For example, 30 to 40 percent of all unscheduled downtime today is related to power quality issues, including harmonics, voltage dips, flicker, sags, and so on. For power-intensive organizations, such as hospitals, poor power quality forces equipment to work harder, affecting its energy consumption and efficiency. Implementing a power monitoring system can provide visibility into the quality and availability of facility power, enabling facility managers to gain higher efficiency, fewer process interruptions, less wear and tear to equipment, and improved safety. A power management solution translates power quality and equipment data into actionable intelligence. Facility managers can gain visibility into energy consumption trends and real-time data to find sources of power loss or poor power factor. Healthcare facilities are able to improve power reliability while reducing energy-related capital and operational expenses.

Powering Care Now and in the Future

Today’s healthcare providers are under mounting pressure to do more with less, while also complying with strict regulations and health and safety measures. With dated infrastructure and an aging population, the world’s health facilities will strain under the pressure.

IoT-enabled power management solutions, such as smart electrical panels, connected p ower metering devices and power monitoring software can ensure reliable electrical power to critical areas, identify potential issues before a power failure occurs, reduce operating theater downtime and automatically test emergency power supply systems. Through IoT, there will be new opportunities to improve patient care and satisfaction, which ultimately leads to better patient outcomes.

¹ Schneider Electric. How Unreliable Power Affects the Business Value of a Hospital. (2010)

² Schneider Electric. How IoT Delivers Better Patient Care and Optimizes Healthcare Facility Operation. (2016)