Annual Conference Schedule 2023
Thursday – Friday, May 4 & 5, 2023
NIU Conference Center, Naperville, IL
(Schedule is tentative and subject to change.)
Thursday, May 4
7:00 – 8:00 a.m. Registration and Breakfast
8:00 – 8:15 a.m. Welcome
8:15 – 9:15 a.m. – Auditorium
KEYNOTE ADDRESS:
Dr. Sudip Bose, physician, professor, combat veteran and Bronze Star recipient — Pulling lessons from the battlefield and emergency room, Dr. Bose provides a powerful message on preparing for life’s most difficult moments and living your life with intention. This world-leading physician and Army Bronze Star recipient has learned how to thrive and stay grounded in the face of overwhelming circumstances. His compelling message draws on the strength, courage and resilience inside all of us. Notably, Dr. Bose treated Saddam Hussein following his capture. We anticipate that listeners will discover much here that can also be applied to the world of facility management.
9:30 – 10:30 a.m.
Seminar – Room 260
Tom Spremo, President, Purely Med Gas
Medical Gas Systems of Today — Gain a clear and detailed view of the state of the Medical Gas field, today and tomorrow, in this presentation and an understanding of how it all may apply at your health care facility. Tom will bring the benefit of more than 30 years experience as an educator and medgas trainer. He will focus on:
- Preparation for regulatory review
- Key points for your next construction project
- Credentials for Medical Gas System personnel
9:30 – 10:30 a.m. Seminar – Room 266
Catherine Tojaga, CT Mechanical, and Lauren Sustek, Bartkowski Life Safety
Inspection of Life Safety Components and the HVAC System — Building owners, facility managers, occupants, insurance companies, and first responders are all affected when a fire event occurs. How they are affected can be tied directly to how well or how poorly this system performs. Professionally trained Technicians who properly install, inspect, and maintain these Fire Life Systems and their components make a very important contribution to the execution of the overall fire protection design. Learning objectives: Discuss fire safety objectives; highlight the use of NFPA 90A as a base document; explain types and uses of various dampers; installation requirements and inspection of doors and barriers.
10:40 – 11:40 a.m. Seminar – Room 260
John Zachara, Integrated Facilities Solutions, Inc.
What is Validation and Why is it Important to Owners? — The pool of capital dollars for Health Systems has shrunk in the last 18 months due to COVID concerns and there has been a need to spend capital in many ways then we never thought. The challenge Health Systems are faced with revolves around making their capital dollars go farther. The only way we can really know if our projects are heading down the right track is using the Validation Process. This presentation will detail the Validation Process, why it is so critical to the success of our projects, and will provide real world examples of how the Validation Process had led Owner’s to make the best decisions possible. This presentation will show case several examples of when Validation has worked and when it has failed project teams. The validation process is something that can and should be utilized on projects of all types in order to best understand how to spend capital construction dollars most effectively.
10:40 – 11:40 a.m. Seminar – Room 266
Patrick Reicher and Gloria Frank, Raths, Raths & Johnson Inc.
Traditional and Unconventional Masonry Exterior Wall Restoration Strategies for Medical Facilities — Although time-tested, traditional repair strategies are suitable for many projects, other lesser-established unconventional strategies can be considered to improve exterior wall performance. Over-cladding or exterior coating application can be implemented to fundamentally transform the exterior wall into a cavity wall or barrier wall, respectively. Unconventional interior repairs, including the use of crystalline waterproofing technologies, urethane foam, or variable vapor retarders in conjunction with insulation can also be considered to improve wall performance with respect to water leakage, air infiltration, and/or thermal properties. This presentation will cover both traditional options and “outside-the-box” strategies for masonry restoration and repair projects. It includes discussions related to building science, air and vapor transport related to traditional and unconventional strategies, and several case studies..
11:45 – 1:15 p.m. Lunch and Visit with Exhibits
1:15 – 2:15 p.m. Seminar – Room 260
Libby Ashworth and Michael Dodson, Garratt-Callahan
Tools for Success With TJC EC.02.05.02 – Integration Into Your Computerized Maintenance Management System — With The Joint Commission's new standard EC.02.05.02 being in effect for over a year, many facilities may still be figuring out the best way to document Water Safety efforts. To overcome this hurdle, the next step is ensuring the integration of EC.02.05.02's requirements into each facility's existing Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS). Using the CMMS, documenting Water Safety compliance becomes streamlined through a process that is familiar to Facilities teams. This presentation will outline the process of integrating each control measure into the CMMS systems, including the monitoring of key performance areas listed in EP2, such as temperature and disinfectant. It will conclude with how to pull completion reports for documentation and include tips and new technologies for ensuring compliance with The Joint Commission's standard. Gain the proper tools to remain compliant with TJC EC.02.05.02 while reducing overall workload by using a process that is already in place at each facility.
1:15 – 2:15 p.m. Seminar – Room 266
Mike Phelps, Altorfer Power Systems
Expanded Standby Power Solutions: Paralleling Systems and Natural Gas Options — Caterpillar offers a variety of paralleling solutions – from on package EMCP 4.4 based to full switchgear systems.The discussion will begin with Paralleling Technologies and Strategies and will follow this with a comparison of Gas vs. Diesel Gensets in Standby Applications. This presentation is a level set to bring the audience to a minimum level of knowledge on Cat paralleling solutions, and allow them to:
▪ Understand the reasoning behind different paralleling strategies
▪ Understand the value propositions for each paralleling option
▪ Understand the key benefits for each paralleling option
▪ Understand the differences between the Cat paralleling options
▪ Identify applications that are suitable for a specific paralleling strategy.
2:25 – 3:25 p.m. Seminar – Room 260
John Wandolowski, Site Objectives LLC
Developing Bench Strength – Preparing for Tomorrow— Facilities organizations are seeing senior staff leaving at an alarming rate, and we are seeing turnover in our hourly staff for the lack of advancement. Whether we are hiring new leadership for our organization or advancing someone within our internal staff, we need to be purposeful in the development of that employee’s career. When I started my supervisory career, I was hired as a supervisor for Johnson & Johnson as a maintenance supervisor for the second shift. They knew I had potential, but they wanted to make sure that all of their supervisors understood the requirements of leadership. They sent me to the Management by Responsibility Seminar by Michael Durst, Ph.D. That seminar changed the direction of my career. My presentation will address the core lessons of MBR. The key message of this presentation is developing staff for advancement.
2:25 – 3:25 p.m. Seminar – Room 266
Ron Petrucci, BMS CAT
How to Properly Clean Up after a Water Loss — What’s the big deal — you only need to grab the mop and a large stack of dry towels — right? Well, yes but NO! Ron will map out the whole process, from start to finish, in this presentation. He will explain how to properly do a clean-up, how to record it, how to document everything needed for internal and/or insurance purposes. Actually, there is a science behind it and Ron will describe the parts that are involved and data that support doing the job properly. He’ll also talk about the ramifications that can occur when too many corners are cut to get the job done in a rush. Don’t learn these lessons the hard way!
3:30 – 5:00 p.m. Reception (cocktails and refreshments)
Friday, May 5
7:00 – 8:00 a.m. Breakfast
8:00 – 8:15 a.m. Welcome Back
8:15 – 9:15 a.m. – Auditorium
Special Presentation: Herman McKenzie, The Joint Commission
The Joint Commission Update
Annual Joint Commission update on top scored standards in the Environment of Care and Life Safety. This session will discuss current trends and hot topics in the field today. Bring your questions and get answers to prepare for a survey or to keep up to date on all your compliance issues.
9:30 – 10:30 a.m. Seminar – Room 260
Anne M. Guglielmo, SASHE, CFPS, CHFM, CHSP, LEED A.P., Project Manager, Code Consultants, Inc.
"What the Finding??" — The current accreditation survey practice uses a “see it – cite it” methodology. At times during accreditation surveys, facility managers find themselves surprised or confused by the findings of their accreditation organization’s field surveyors. In that moment, facility managers have the option to accept the observation as a finding or challenge it. This presentation will go over real findings from recent accreditation surveys that came to us as fire protection consultants, and will drill down into those observations to draw conclusions on whether those observations are supported by the applicable codes and standards. In this interactive discussion we will pose the observation, allow for attendees to ponder whether they agree, and then take them through the code trail to draw a conclusion.
9:30 – 10:30 a.m. Seminar – Room 266
Rashida Pflipsen, Brucker Company
DOAS: Optimizing Ventilation & Efficiency within Healthcare Systems — DOAS units are designed to provide 100% outdoor air, while packaged ventilators provide 20-100% outdoor air, recirculating some air back from the space. During the COVID-pandemic, one of the ventilation strategies utilized was to increase the percentage of outdoor/fresh air provided to the space. One design strategy is to recirculate air back from the space to help reduce mechanical cooling/heating loads because you are using already conditioned air to mix with the outdoor air. A second design strategy is to provide 100% outdoor air to spaces such as operating rooms, intensive care units, or quarantine rooms. 0% of the air is recirculated from the space, ensuring proper ventilation and conditioning of those environments. Another strategy was to increase the filtration rating for all filters within the system. These ventilators allow for numerous stages of filtration, from MERV 8 ratings to MERV 14, in single or dual configurations. It is imperative that healthcare facilities not only have fresh, clean air provided to the space, but conditioned air that is not too warm (or cold) or too humid where bacteria can thrive. This presentation will cover the ventilators application use, operation and control, review of options to improve unit efficiency and efficiency ratings/definitions that must be met to meet standards and government regulations.
10:30 – 11:00 a.m. Break and Visit with Exhibits
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Seminar – Room 260
Steve Genovese, Matt Ziesemer and Hafid Cristobal, Western Specialty Contractors
Fundamentals of Parking Garage & Building Facade Restoration in a Healthcare Environment — Restoring, repairing, and maintaining parking garages, decks, and ramps on hospital and medical office building campuses is a necessary, but not aesthetically-pleasing, type of project. From re-routing traffic flow, to inconvenience of minimal parking, to loud, dusty, and disruptive demolition work, it takes a skilled contractor to complete this type of project. Not to mention the monitoring of the vibrations of the demolition hammers so that none of the medical equipment has calibration changes. Many times, repair projects only arise after a major problem has surfaced. Information is given regarding routine self-performing façade inspections and examples of early signs of material failures. This presentation will share many of the best practices for these types of projects, in addition to warning signs to look for on a garage to avoid large, costly capitol repair projects.
11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Seminar – Room 266
Laurence V. Wilson, RTM, and Anthony Ranallo, Boilersource
Are Your Steam Systems Feeling Some Pressure (Part 2) — Steam systems have traditionally been used in hospitals to serve a wide variety of loads including space heating, humidifcation, domestic hot water, process loads such as those found in Sterile Processing Departments (sterilizers, cart washers, etc.), process loads such as those found in Food Service Departments (steam kettles, erc.), laundries and for special needs such as the heat required for active regeneration of dessicant dehumidification equipment required for Operating Rooms. Some of these are constant throughout the year and some loads vary over the four seasons. They also consume steam at various pressures that range from 15 to 80 psig. Using a steam/condensate system is a much more efficient method of transferring energy especially over longer distances where Central Energy Plants need to service multiple buildings in a campus setting. There are newer technologies and various codes/standards in place that create a wider variety of options for Owners, Engineers and Contractors to consider. Some of these opportunities/challenges will be presented. More importantly, we’ll will touch on a couple of specific decarbonization strategies as it relates to satisfying all the loads noted above. While decarbonization is often thought to mean “all electric”, that’s not actually the case. We’ll talk about technology options around this such as adiabatic humidification and electric steam boilers.
12:00 – 12:45 p.m. Lunch
1:00 p.m. Closing Remarks and Adjournment
