Alegent Health and Siemens Partner to Create a Showcase for Innovative Building Technology

In September 2002, Alegent Health and Siemens announced a 10-year strategic alliance under which the two companies would work together to implement innovative technologies and solutions to improve the delivery and safety of patient care and enhance operational efficiency. The alliance included Alegent Health’s eight hospitals and more than 100 clinics in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa.

A primary goal of the alliance is to standardize digital systems throughout Alegent’s healthcare facilities, including diagnostic, surgical, lighting, building controls, fire safety, security systems, and IT systems. Siemens Building Technologies, Inc., and Siemens Medical Solutions, Siemens Energy & Automation, and Siemens Information and Communications are four Siemens U.S. operating companies involved in the alliance.

One of the first projects in the agreement was the development of the Alegent Health Lakeside Hospital, which will open in August of this year. This new facility will be a full-service, all-digital "smart" hospital, designed and built from the ground up with the latest medical equipment advances, IT networks and building technologies.

Following is an overview the technologies and solutions provided by Siemens Building Technologies to Alegent Health Lakeside Hospital:

• Integrated Control: Lakeside is the first hospital in the United States that has Siemens building controls, fire safety and security systems integrated on the same IT network, rather than on individual networks. This integrated approach provided Alegent Lakeside with substantial savings in capital costs. For example, integration reduced the hospital’s wiring costs for its HVAC and security panels, chillers, variable frequency drives (VFD’s) and generators.

• Apogeeä Building Automation System: is the platform that provides the integrated control of the facility’s heating, ventilation and air-conditioning; indoor air quality; energy usage; fire alarms; and other critical alarm systems. The platform resides on one server that—in addition to Lakeside—also provides integrated control to several other Alegent healthcare facilities. For example, from one server the Siemens BAS provides environmental control to Immanuel, Midlands, Mercy CB, Bergan and Missouri Valley facilities, in addition to Lakeside. With Apogee, Alegent only has one server to maintain while each building within its network retains stand-alone capabilities. Building control information can be accessed from any workstation within the Alegent network, resulting in improved patient comfort and employee productivity.

• Apogee Reno System: a campus-wide, centralized paging system that can send all critical alarm messages to facility engineers, technicians and security personnel via pager to the centralized call center at Bergan Hospital.

• Security Systems: Siemens provided access control, and a video surveillance/intrusion prevention system. A single card is used for both ID and security. The security system is integrated into Alegent’s IT network and Peoplesoft system to simplify the HR process

• Fire Safety: Advanced FireFinder™ detection system from Siemens Building Technologies is integrated into the Apogee building automation system.

Alegent has been a customer of Siemens Building Technologies since 1980.