Healthcare Design - November 2017 - 9

EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Hank Adams

STRONG ENOUGH?

Recent weather-related devastation leaves
looming questions regarding how we approach
resiliency By Jennifer Kovacs Silvis

Carolyn BaRoss
Jody Barry

ADVENTIST CARE CENTERS

Jeffrey Brand
Sam Burnette

HDR

PERKINS+WILL

PERKINS EASTMAN

EARL S WENSSON ASSOCIATES

Sheila F. Cahnman
JUMPG ARDEN CONSULTING LLC

Thomas W. Chessum

CO ARCHITECTS

James Crispino
THE HEADLINES are startling. First Harvey hit Hous-

ton. Then Irma clobbered Florida. And then came
Maria, devastating Puerto Rico. As we go to press
on this issue, many hospitals in Puerto Rico remain
without electricity, relying on generators to operate weeks after Hurricane Maria made landfall on
Sept. 20. Those fortunate to have electricity are
experiencing ongoing outages, while facilities without power at all face stifling temperatures inside.
With reports that both fuel and medicine are running low, the beleaguered healthcare system is now
bracing for an expected wave of disease due to a shortage of safe drinking water, with the first deaths tied to waterborne illness just reported.
It's hard not to think about how building design could have prevented some
of these scenarios-and there are stories of how it did (for example, a $50 million investment in floodgates at Texas Medical Center successfully protected
its network of buildings from the deluge of rain seen in Houston).
Resiliency will likely be on the minds of healthcare organizations and their
design and engineering partners for weeks and months to come (check out
the session "Resilience Design: Lessons Learned and Applied" at this month's
Healthcare Design Expo & Conference in Orlando, Fla.). As teams assess
whether solutions in place or planned are enough, I turned to our board member Kim Shinn, principal/senior sustainability wizard at TLC Engineering
for Architecture, to lend his perspective on what all of us can learn from these
events.
One critical takeaway was this: The best resiliency measures are passive.
Shinn recommends starting by placing infrastructure out of potential paths
of destruction and minimizing reliance on mechanical and electrical systems.
A big piece of the passive resiliency puzzle is the use of natural ventilation; see
our September 2017 issue for an in-depth look at that topic.
Also, turn to page 100 of this issue for details on engineering solutions
adopted on healthcare projects in Rwanda (including natural ventilation)-
done out of necessity due to the country's high energy costs, unreliable power,
and insufficient resources-that are worth exploring elsewhere. One important,
and timely, example is Rwandans use of a simple microgrid system that relies on
solar panels and batteries to provide emergency backup power while offering
a sustainable and lower-cost supplement to traditional sources of electricity.
It echoes a point made by Shinn, who supports the adoption of more distributed energy and water infrastructure, as opposed to large centers connected
by long lines that sadly, as we're seeing in Puerto Rico, can become quite vulnerable. Anytime there's an opportunity to rebuild, it's critical that the best solutions are in place, not just the ones we've always used before. 

G ENSLER

Christine Hester Devens
Mary Frazier

AECOM

EWINGCOLE

Jocelyn Lum Frederick
H C TANG RAM DESIGN

Catherine L. Gow

F RANCIS CAUFFMAN

Natalie Miovski Hagerty
THE CHILDREN'S HOS PITAL OF PHILADELPHIA

Laurel Harrison

STANTEC

Suzen L. Heeley
MEMORIAL SLOAN KETTERING CANCER CENTER

Walter Jones

METROHEALTH SYSTEM

Julie Kent

TRINITY HEALTH

Michael Lied
Jain Malkin

G BBN ARCHITECTS
J AIN MALKIN INC.

Mike McKay
Victoria Navarro
Don Orndoff

ERDMAN

ADVOCATE HEALTH CARE
KAISER PERMANENTE

Diane R.K. Osan

FKP ARCHITECTS

Mark Patterson

SMITHGROUPJJR

Andrew Quirk

S KANSKA USA BUILDING

Pamela H. Redden
HKS INC.

William D. Repichowskyj
E4H ARCHITECTURE

Joan Saba

NBBJ

Kim Shinn
TLC ENGINEERING FOR ARCHITECTURE

Janet H. Sisolak
UT MD A NDERS ON CANCER CENTER

Karl R. Sonnenberg
ZIMMER GUNS UL F RASCA ARCHITECTS LLP

Kurt Spiering

HGA

Steve Stokes CALLISONRTKL
Jeffrey C. Stouffer
Joseph Strauss

HKS INC.

CLEVELAND CLINIC

Paul E. Strohm
Jocelyn Stroupe

HOK

CANNONDESIGN

Joshua A. Theodore
Don Thomas

LEO A DALY
BWBR

Roger S. Ulrich
CHALMERS UNIVERS ITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Gary L. Vance

VANCE CONSULTING

NOVEMBER 2017

Healthcare Design - November 2017

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