Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1192126
64 I ICT TODAY FIGURE 7: Integrated power management with access control at the rack helps to monitor power and environmental conditions, reduces power consumption, and minimizes hardware failures to optimize critical server equipment in hospitals and health- care facilities. OPTIMIZE TR SYSTEMS WITH INTEGRATED POWER MANAGEMENT To optimize critical server equipment in hospital TRs, monitor power and environmental conditions at the rack level (Figure 7). Collecting data at this level provides the granularity to visualize exactly where equipment is being overutilized or underutilized. Often, there is stranded capacity and underutilized equipment that can be retired or consolidated. Simply stated, a rack- level remote monitoring solution turns measured data into visual, intuitive, actionable information. Invest in intelligent power distribution units with integrated environmental monitoring and access control to: • Achieve more granular, complete visibility, helping to take concrete steps to reduce power consumption. • Remotely reboot hung equipment and monitor at the device level. • Monitor for water, smoke, gases, access, temperature, humidity, pressure and other factors to minimize hardware failures. • Meet regulatory compliance of data security per the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS, BUILDING CODES AND CRITICAL EQUIPMENT One of the most important goals for those designing and building healthcare facilities is meeting the Interna- tional Building Code's (IBC) Risk Category IV criteria, which states that hospitals, including their nonstructural components, are critical and must be designed to stay operational even during natural disasters and other emergencies. According to the 2018 Hospital Construction Survey, which is conducted annually by the American Society for Healthcare Engineering's (ASHE's) Health Facilities Management (HFM) magazine, "89% of hospital facility professionals consider resiliency, ability to withstand nat- ural disasters and power outages, some of the most critical components in the design of new healthcare facilities." Critical Facilities Requirements Natural disasters are unpredictable and uncontrollable, so preparedness and enacting preventative measures within the healthcare facility are key. In the past few years, there have been many hurri- canes and other natural disasters that have swept the U.S. In many cases, smaller hospitals were required to transfer patients to larger more robust buildings or to other nearby hospitals. To ensure operation during flooding and hurricanes, TIA-569-D 6.3.8 requires that TRs must be located above water level, unless preventative measures against water infiltration are employed. The TR must be free of water or drain pipes not directly required in support of the equipment within the room. A floor drain with a back- flow preventer must be provided within the room if risk of water ingress exists. There are unique architectural and engineering chal- lenges when building in seismically active areas. Seismic events are not limited to the state of California; earth- quakes take place every day throughout the world. According to the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), a consortium of universities dedi- cated to researching seismological data, magnitude 2 and smaller earthquakes can occur hundreds of times a day worldwide, while major earthquakes with magni- tudes greater than 7 happen more than once a month.