Project profile: Primary care facility improvements
Tampa General improves its primary care facility with LED lighting and digital controls.
Project name: Tampa General Medical Group family care clinic improvement
Project type: New construction
Engineering Firm: Envision Lighting Systems, LLC
Building type: Hospitals/health care facilities
Location: Brandon, FL
Timeline: 2012 – June 2013
Project goals
Located just 20 minutes from its parent hospital, the Tampa General Medical Group (TGMG) Family Care Center in Brandon, Fla., opened in 2012 as one of several primary care clinics in the Tampa General Hospital medical system. With federal healthcare reform policies impacting hospitals and medical centers across the nation, TGMG needed to make changes to coincide with federal regulations. The hospital system set two primary goals. The overall goal of the project was to build a modern ambulatory clinic that provides high-quality medical attention at a lower cost for patients. The second goal is to help patients in the outer region of Tampa receive hospital quality care at a primary care facility.
Challenges
A common lighting challenge in health care facilities is to provide light levels suitable for patients, nurses and doctors, as well as clinicians and staff alike. Nurses and doctors need high quality lighting to see, for instance, physical details of skin ailments or open wounds, but lower lighting level suitable for patient comfort is also needed. In addition to patient and healthcare provider preference, TGMG needed to take into consideration energy savings and maintenance reduction in the new facility. The challenge is to find a lighting solution that saved energy and reduced
Solution
TGMG lookied directly at LED lighting paired with lighting controls and knew this combination would allow them to meet the challenges. After careful consideration and testing of various LED luminaires, TGMG selected multiple LED luminaires and lighting controls from Acuity Brands. Lithonia Lighting VT Series 2×2-ft LED luminaires were chosen for approximately 75% of the building, including nurses stations, corridors, exam rooms, conference rooms, the lounge, and the waiting room.
VT Series LED luminaires are designed to deliver high volumetric lighting for ambient illumination. Unlike traditional, more directed lighting systems, volumetric lighting creates a uniform balance between the light delivered on the patient care and documentation tasks, and illumination that is comfortable and inviting for patients and facility staff. VT Series LED luminaires came with a lumen management option that helps mantain a constant level of illumination throughout the lifetime of the system, an option that saves an additional 10% of the energy, and further extends the life of the LED system. The digital control technology of the VT Series LED luminaires helps maximize energy savings.
Project success
The lighting enhances the aesthetics of the ambulatory clinic and was well received by the clinic staff. TGMG plans to use LED lighting and controls in all future primary care facilities. It also intends to upgrade its main hospital campus with RT Series LED luminaires.
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