TITLE: HOSPITAL CASE STUDY: A HOLISTIC TREATMENT

LOCATION: PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE

RESEARCHER: ANNE COSGROVE

The Portsmouth Regional Hospital areas of service

included: A Heart & Lung Center; cancer care;
weight loss surgery; maternity care, bone and joint
care; neurosciences; and diabetes and
endocrinology. Meanwhile, the population in the
area also increased, and demand for services grew.
As a result, in 2006 the hospital’s leadership decided
a major renovation and expansion of the facility was
in order. The multiphase project was completed in
October 2010, and the past several months have
given the staff and patients alike time to enjoy the
new and expanded offerings.
The approach of the Portsmouth Regional Hospital
is to encompass virtually all areas of the facility.
This included expansion of medical/surgical spaces, upgrades to infrastructure (including energy
efficiency and other “green” measures), and changes
to aesthetics and wayfinding systems. Freeing up
space inside the existing facility was an important
part of the construction plan, Duffy explains,
because the site is very close to natural wetlands,
which dictated the hospital largely pursue a vertical
expansion rather than horizontal.
BUILDING ON GREEN PRACTICES
At the time of the expansion, Portsmouth Regional
Hospital had already been striving to operate
according to EPA’s ENERGY STAR guidelines, so
the efficiency focus was not completely new.
Explains Duffy, “We already knew there are ways to
improve the bottom line through savings on
electricity and gas usage. Throughout the project, they continued to focus on reducing the
amount of energy they use. All of the equipment purchased for this project is far more energy
efficient compared to the equipment installed 20 years prior. Choosing items like energy efficient
insulation also helped decrease heat loss through the building shell tremendously.
The proximity of the hospital to natural wetlands also has made the facilities staff mindful of
treading lightly on natural resources. To that end, the project included systems to handle storm
water runoff from parking lots and roofs. The plan
included rain gardens to help filter and absorb
those waters, plant buffers between the hospital
and wetlands to slow down the water that flows to
the wetlands, and pervious pavement under a
newly built parking lot, which helps clean the
storm water before it travels to the wetlands. To
keep track of the quality of water that makes its
way to the wetlands, the hospital installed several
underground units that capture the sediment in the
storm water as it travels to the wetlands. The
facilities staff maintains those water quality units
to ensure the filtration function remains effective.