Schneider Electric Transforms Healcare Infrastructure with StruxureWare for Healcare

New StruxureWare for Healthcare software suite provides organisations with a comprehensive view into their integrated healthcare facility, improving energy savings, infrastructure efficiency, patient safety, and more.

UK, October 16, 2013 - Schneider Electric, a global specialist in energy management, today announced the launch of StruxureWare for Healthcare, a comprehensive new software suite that assists healthcare organisations in maximizing business performance and optimising resources - from the accident and emergency department to the executive office. This new software suite integrates key offers from Schneider Electric to create a more intelligent healthcare infrastructure. By ensuring the right information gets to the right people at the right time, StruxureWare for Healthcare helps healthcare organisations improve financial performance and patient safety, as well as staff productivity, hospital security, and the environment of care as a result of an efficient infrastructure.

According to Healthcast 20201, a report issued by PricewaterhouseCooper's (PwC) Health Research Institute, healthcare organisations and governments around the world are actively seeking solutions to improve health outcomes while also lowering costs, but conventional approaches to cost savings are falling short. Healthcare facilities are among the most energy-intensive buildings in the world, with energy costs and use increasing steadily. In addition, the world population aged 60 years or older is expected to triple from 700 million to 2 billion by 2050, creating a growing demand for healthcare services. Perhaps most importantly, there is an ever-present need to direct as many resources as possible toward improving patient care.

StruxureWare for Healthcare offers an alternative approach to driving optimised performance, while conserving resources. Using the open, scalable EcoStruxure architecture - Schneider Electric's approach to creating intelligent energy management systems - StruxureWare for Healthcare offers robust integration and interoperability between power, IT room, building management, and security systems, enabling efficient and intelligent functionality that benefits the healthcare organisation and their patients. The architecture also provides a single point of monitoring, control, and maintenance. For new hospital construction, this enables scalable building design that can be implemented quickly with lower development costs, dramatically reduced operational costs, and flexibility to allow for future expansion and integration of new technologies.

To date, energy visualisation and analytics have served as the two main functions of building energy management systems to provide recommendations for potential energy conservation measures, said Bob Gohn, senior research director at Navigant Research. With the emergence of new applications such as operations/facilities management, continuous commissioning, energy procurement and more, solutions that enhance interconnections through the integration of previously fragmented areas of buildings will serve an important role in delivering intelligent, actionable building data to assist in optimising energy use and improving organisational processes as a whole.

Developed in close collaboration with customers and selected industry partners, StruxureWare for Healthcare delivers powerful capabilities and benefits for each level of the healthcare organisation, from management to operations and control, all through user-friendly graphical interfaces.

Management: StruxureWare Resource Advisor provides hospital executives with the information and resources they need to meet energy and sustainability initiatives, leading to improved financial performance and overall process efficiency. With market analysis and consulting services provided by Schneider Electric, healthcare organisations can understand and implement a comprehensive energy management strategy.

Operations: StruxureWare Energy Operation and StruxureWare Building Operation enables operations, facility and energy managers to monitor and measure all elements of the building infrastructure, from energy usage, optimisation of heating and ventilation to reinforcement of system reliability, while also creating a more efficient and safe environment that complies with regulatory requirements.

Controls: StruxureWare Power Monitoring Expert, StruxureWare Data Center Expert, as well as video surveillance and access control provides facilities, IT, and security staff with real-time data to help prevent issues such as power outages, IT downtime, and workplace violence before they occur.

Whether you are designing a new facility or expanding an existing one, hospitals and healthcare facilities are under mounting pressure to do more with less - to create an environment that fosters quality care, patient safety, hospital security, and staff productivity, said Michael Sullivan, vice president of Healthcare Solutions at Schneider Electric. StruxureWare for Healthcare represents a tremendous leap forward, and an opportunity for healthcare facilities to dramatically improve the way they are designed, constructed, and operated. It impacts the financial performance of the hospital, but more importantly, can actually enhance the patient experience.

In addition, StruxureWare for Healthcare is being used to create solutions to unique healthcare challenges beyond energy management, such as infection control and patient and infant tracking. Each solution is fully tested, validated, and documented in the dedicated Schneider Electric Healthcare StruxureLab, offering peace-of-mind with an architecture that is proven to succeed.

New South Glasgow Hospital's goal is to become one of the most advanced adult and childrens acute services hospitals in the UK and the biggest critical care complex in Scotland,

LINK:	http://www.schneider-electric.co.uk/sites/uk/en/company/news/news-view...
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