Beacon Health System Children’s Hospital

HEAPY provided commissioning services, as well as designed the mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and technology systems, for the three-story vertical expansion atop the existing Beacon Children’s Hospital in South Bend, Indiana. The project expanded and vertically integrated the existing Pediatric Intensive / Pediatric Acute Care Units, Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU), and Pediatric Hematology-Oncology services into the newly constructed and renovated spaces, consolidating pediatric care and providing best-in-class amenities at this hospital-within-a-hospital. The NICU consists of a 44-bed unit and related support space, located in approximately 39,000 SF of new construction. PICU/Peds consists of a 36-bed unit and related support space, located in approximately 7,000 SF of renovated space.

Project Challenges & Resolutions

Through the commissioning process, HEAPY encountered an issue where the controls and sequence of operations were omitted from the original programming. The oversight posed a significant risk of introducing excess humidity into the facility, which is unacceptable in meticulously controlled environments with surgical spaces requiring specific temperature and humidity levels. To address this, HEAPY collaborated with the controls contractor to ensure proper programming was in place and all sequences of operations were thoroughly tested to confirm they operated as intended.

During functional testing, HEAPY discovered that the duct smoke detectors for the air handlers were neither wired nor functional, which could have posed a serious threat to patient and provider safety if discovered during a life safety incident. HEAPY’s team traced the root cause to a misunderstanding of the contractor’s scope of work. By collaborating with the project team, HEAPY was able to resolve the confusion and correct the issue before occupancy, ensuring a safe environment for all facility users.

Sustainability & INNOVATION

The hospital is built on an underground aquifer, so HEAPY developed the strategy of installing a 3,600-ton chilled water plant and using the aquifer for rejecting heat instead of cooling towers. The concept had a 2.5 year payback. To ensure any aquifer issues could be addressed without impacting the operations of the hospital, temporary cooling tower water and power connections were provided for a mobile cooling tower.

The geothermal system not only saves energy, make up water and chemical treatment, it also reduces the need for site impacts associated with the size and shape of the central plant adding on to support the cooling towers. Other benefits include the elimination of potential cooling tower noise issues for the neighbors, as well as issues that could be associated with the plume of water vapor from the cooling towers.