SPONSORS

The need for high-performance buildings has never been greater. While the construction industry’s environmental impact has been known for some time, today there is a greater understanding of the need to develop facilities that are energy efficient, preserve natural resources and create a more comfortable environment for their inhabitants.

EBD’s purpose is to illustrate how a building’s design choices can impact staff performance, patient wellness and satisfaction, and financial performance.

For those involved in creating better places for children to learn and patients to heal, the pressure to make the right building choices is even more critical. As a result, architects, contractors, building owners and facility managers are seeking verification that any changes will make a measurable difference. In health care construction, this trend is known as evidence-based design (EBD). EBD’s purpose is to illustrate how a building’s design choices can impact staff performance, patient wellness and satisfaction, and financial performance.

For example, when California enacted the 2005 revision of its Title 24 legislation to require nonresidential building owners to comply with “cool roof” regulations, roofing contractors sought solutions on how they could comply without making major changes to their roofing installation practices. One of our heat-transfer scientists believed building heat gain through cool roof compliance rules could be matched by adding insulation to roofing systems that have a darker membrane. Working with André Dejarlais, group manager for the building envelope program at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, and studying the heat-balance equations in Title 24, the two demonstrated to the California Energy Commission that additional insulation could offset the lower solar reflectance of a darker roof and would ensure Title 24 compliance.

The team and the Asphalt Roofing Manufacturing Association (ARMA) then developed a tool to calculate the amount of insulation needed to make a roof with specific solar properties compliant. Customers can use the tool to complete the compliance process.

Manufacturers also developed new products to help roofing contractors comply with the new legislation. For example we developed a cool roof cap sheet for customers who prefer bituminous built-up roofing systems. It is a mineral-surfaced, white acryliccoated fiber glass cap sheet and is used as the uppermost- finish ply in a variety of built-up and hybrid SBS roofing systems. The unique, factoryapplied UV- resistant coating provides extra protection to the membrane and underlying asphalt.

This product also provides a reflective and emissive surface that meets California’s Title 24 requirements through the Standard Prescriptive Approach, which means a specifier, contractor or building owner need only show that each building product meets or exceeds the prescriptive requirement. The greater reflectivity and emissivity means that the roof stays cooler, resulting in lower energy consumption and reduced demand during peak periods. Combining highly reflective and emissive roof surfacing with the proper amount of roof insulation can significantly reduce heat gains inside a building.

When the John C. Lincoln Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona built a new emergency department that incorporated many design changes to increase its effectiveness and patient volume, improve the quality of care for patients, and the satisfaction for both patients and staff, it needed to know if the changes had an impact. Some design changes included individual patient treatment rooms, high- performance fiberglass acoustic ceilings and central nursing stations with acoustical finishes that were separated from adjoining spaces by large windows.

Researches from Orcutt Winslow, the architectural firm for the project, asked scientists at our research facility if they were willing to donate their time and expertise to perform acoustical measurements in the old and new facilities to use in combination with patient and staff satisfaction surveys to determine the effectiveness of the design changes. The changes were designed to improve acoustical comfort for both patients and staff and increased privacy for patients.

In September 2007, noise levels were measured in several areas of the old emergency department to establish a baseline. The measurement protocol was developed; the measurements were conducted and the initial baseline data is currently being analyzed.

Similar measurements will be taken again in early 2008 at the new facilities. The design changes to both measured acoustical effects and to patient and staff satisfaction will then be correlated. The research results will be shared with other health care organizations to drive improved design choices in new projects and to create better and less stressful healing environments throughout the country.

The Pebble Project Research Initiative is another example of the increased interest in evidence-based design. Launched in 2000 by the nonprofit Center for Health Design, the Pebble Project is a partnership among the Center and a network of more than 46 leading health care organizations committed to measuring the impact of facility design on patient health and recovery, financial operations, and staff satisfaction and comfort. Its mission is “to create a ripple effect in the health care community by providing researched and documented examples of health care facilities whose design has made a difference in the quality and care and financial performance.”

Corporate partners will contribute building science expertise to conduct evidence-based design research, which will assist health care partners with designing and building facilities that improve the health and well-being of patients and staff. Our contribution will be related to moisture control, thermal comfort, indoor air quality, acoustic comfort and energy-efficiency in health care projects.

Moisture-control simulations can be used to evaluate building assemblies and illustrate heat and moisture flows in a given climate. Moisture simulations also can expose potential moisture problems, such as condensation behind vapor-impermeable wall coverings. Energy-use analysis and simulation can evaluate how energy is used and can identify the most cost-effective energy conservation measures to implement. These analyses can be applied to new or existing buildings. Acoustical measurements, simulations and design guidance can improve acoustic comfort for patients and staff, and increase patient privacy.

Those involved in health care are accustomed to verifiable medical advances and those involved in education are used to statistical evaluations of student performance. As the evidence mounts that the building itself plays a role in these outcomes, they now are demanding those same measurable results in the buildings they occupy.

JR Babineau is acoustics & IEQ leader at Johns Manville Corporate R&D. He can be reached at 303.978.3611 (www.jm.com).

Back to top ▲