The curtain wall industry has undergone significant restructuring during the past decades. This session addresses the state of the industry in 2016, the challenges faced by designers and constructors in employing this building envelope system, the potential effect on long-term building operating costs and on indoor air quality, and best practices for mitigating those risks. Practical insights and useful information will be presented from successful projects and from claim scenarios.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the changes that have affected the curtain wall industry in the past few years.
• Explain how these changes have the potential to delay and to increase project costs during the construction phase.
• Explain how these changes have the potential to increase operating costs during the building life cycle.
• Describe measures to reduce the risks and costs associated with curtain wall installations during the project and building life cycles.

Facilities departments are often being required to maintain or improve the high quality of work with reduced budgets. This presentation will guide you in developing a finite cost-reduction and in-house strategy, demonstrate the steps to take to build on your program, and supply the necessary data to drive decision making to accommodate reductions and maximize the value and return provided by your department.

Learning Objectives:

• Develop a finite strategy with efficiency for cost reduction and an in-house model.
• Examine the effects of accepting a capital item as an operating expense and identify how to normalize costs.
• Define capital and how it works within your program.
• Identify ways to reduce costs without reducing staff and while investing in the aesthetics of your facility.

The Defense Health Agency (DHA) has implemented an asset management program called SMS Builder to assess more than 2,000 medical and medical research facilities worldwide. This session will cover how the DHA implemented this program alongside the three military services, how standardized assessment can provide portfolio management down to the component and equipment level, how annual work plans based on return on investment can aid the facilities manager in performing work within the facility, and the lessons learned.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the steps and data needed to perform a standardized facility assessment.
• Determine the facility components to assess and what methods to use for the best results.
• Use funding scenarios and work plan ROIs to prioritize repairs and replacements.
• Examine the successes and pitfalls of a large facility assessment effort.

This presentation is a review of the codes and standards referenced by the 2012 editions of NFPA 101 and NFPA 99, which were recently adopted by CMS as Conditions of Participation. The 2012 editions reference updated inspection, testing, and maintenance requirements that will affect facility operations. This session will review the major changes for NFPA 10, NFPA 25, NFPA 72 , NFPA 80, and NFPA 110.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the referenced codes and standards now referenced by the CMS Conditions of Participation.
• Discuss inspection, testing, and maintenance requirement changes in applicable referenced codes.
• Explain changes made during various revision cycles to the referenced codes.
• List the effects of the revised referenced codes on health care facilities.

The Joint Commission and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) are working together to provide resources and tools for hospitals to improve compliance with eight of the most challenging Joint Commission standards. This session examines Joint Commission findings, explores root causes, and includes an interactive discussion on the tools needed to improve compliance.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the root cause of the leading life safety and environment of care citations issued by the Joint Commission.
• Navigate the ASHE Focus on Compliance website more effectively.
• Apply the tools and resources available at the ASHE Focus on Compliance website to existing issues within environment of care and life safety programs.
• Participate in the collaborative effort to optimize the health care physical environment.

This session, presented by the ten-year chairman of the NFPA 110/111 committee, gives an introduction to proactive management processes for hospital emergency power systems. Topics covered during this session include testing, operation, maintenance, vulnerability mitigation, and power failure planning. All topics are updated for 2016. Tips and recent lessons learned along with numerous best practices will be presented through the session.

Learning Objectives:

• List major challenges and benefits of different approaches to inspection, testing, operation, and maintenance.
• Describe processes for finding hidden emergency power system vulnerabilities.
• List major compliance challenges and solutions with emergency power system management.
• Describe the necessary aspects of a comprehensive and compliant management program.

This presentation will focus on power distribution reliability from an overcurrent protective device application as it pertains to selective coordination. The importance of short-circuit calculations and the role of these short-circuit currents will be reviewed in the selection of overcurrent protective devices to selectively coordinate. This presentation will also look at other aspects of reliability and safety including addressing incident energy. The session will also provide a basic understanding of arc flash risk.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the importance of fault current calculations in the selection of overcurrent protective devices to meet design goals of selective coordination.
• Develop an understanding of selective coordination as a design goal and methods to achieve more reliable selectively coordinated infrastructure.
• Describe best practices for achieving cost-effective selective coordination solutions.
• Assess the available tools that can be an asset to the design engineer in selection of overcurrent protective devices.

As engineer whisperers, the presenters will talk about engineering systems design and will define the acronyms that are so freely thrown around during meetings. They will break down the topics into simple terms and use decision making tools so all stake holders can understand the implications of engineering decisions. Discussing engineering systems does not have to be scary nor complicated and the engineer whisperers will show you how it can be simple and fun.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize and explain acronyms used by engineers and facility managers.
• Use decision-making tools to break down complex engineering decisions.
• Explain in simple terms the cost ramifications of engineering decisions.
• Align facility manager requests and C-suite understanding of utility systems.