Tips to save money in your hospital, hospice, or practice
As a healthcare business leader, you know the importance of providing quality care to patients 24/7/365.
There are simply no power-down days.
Given the life-changing and life-saving efforts of your tireless industry, it’s no wonder that the health sector recently had the largest percentage increase in energy prices.
Keeping all medical equipment live and lights turned on is no small task financially. Thankfully, there are plenty of opportunities to improve the energy efficiency of your building and reduce costs in the process. Let’s explore how.
Implement a controlled lighting system
An effective way to improve energy efficiency and reduce costs for your healthcare business is to introduce a controlled lighting system. Identify the areas of your building with the least footfall as these zones are where controlled lighting will have the biggest impact.
Opt for a dimming system that ensures some level of lighting is always present or take energy efficiency to the next level with a switch-off lighting system.
This would mean that lights only turn on when they detect motion and switch off again once an employee or patient has left the room or corridor. Always remember to be mindful of the needs of your patients, especially those who are visually impaired.
Create a new position and set goals
Many healthcare companies still don’t have an energy efficiency expert in post. This makes it much harder to generate energy usage targets and successfully monitor them.
Sure, you could bolt these responsibilities onto an existing employee but to ensure that cost-saving targets are properly met, consider creating a new position altogether. Forecast the labour costs of this new role using a payroll tracker.
This employee can set goals for the company and keep track of how effectively energy-saving targets are being met. It may even prove advantageous to hire an entire team responsible for energy efficiency.
Always be willing to evaluate progress with stakeholders and make amends to your plan as necessary.
Educate all staff
While hiring a new member of staff or team to oversee your energy goals is great practice, a successful plan needs to have everyone from the company on board.
It’s one thing to set a goal that office equipment is to be shut down properly at the end of every work day, but quite another challenge to get staff to actually implement your plan. That’s why it’s so important to bring all your staff on this important journey with you.
No matter their role, invite staff members to collaborate and provide incentives for their support in meeting targets. Create discussion and implementation workshops with employee scheduling.
Work with your patients
Beyond involving your employees in your energy efficiency plans, there’s also wisdom in engaging with other stakeholders such as patients. Invite them to attend in-person sessions or ask them to provide written feedback.
Cash incentives are a great way to gather as many opinions as possible. Communicating your goals with patients will ensure that you’re held to account and equipped with valuable feedback.
Introduce smart heating
Homeowners are constantly being advised to turn their heating down by a single degree to save money and energy, but that won’t cut it for the healthcare industry.
There could be a risk to the well-being of your patients in doing so. So, instead, introduce smart heating systems throughout your building or buildings.
Smart heating means that you can choose which rooms are heated and when, ensuring that only rooms in use are heated as needed.
With the healthcare industry being responsible for an estimated five to eight per cent of global energy consumption, this is a sure way to turn the tide and reduce spending.
Check insulation at regular intervals
Regulating the temperature of patient spaces, research areas and staff rooms is about so much more than just smart heating. Insulation is another vital tool in the battle to boost energy efficiency.
Ensuring that your building is subject to regular insulation checks will prevent energy from being wasted, plus save valuable money on energy bills. That’s a win for you and the planet.
Upgrade office equipment
If you’ve been holding off on buying new office equipment, it’s finally time to invest. Older monitors, laptops, printers and scanners use significantly more energy than their new counterparts. This is keeping your electricity costs higher than they need to be.
Upgraded office technology will boost energy efficiency as well as efficiency across the board, with modern equipment meaning that employees can complete tasks more quickly.
By implementing these energy-efficiency measures, you’ll enjoy a workplace that runs more effectively for the planet and your wallet.