The Cleveland Clinic is well-known for its world-class care. Patients from around the world come to the clinic, and the clinic comes to them. In addition to its main campus in Northeast Ohio, the Cleveland Clinic has facilities in Florida, Las Vegas, Canada, and Abu Dhabi. All told, the clinic’s enterprise consists of 250 buildings encompassing more than 25 million square feet.
With that big of a footprint, the clinic is always carrying out ambitious projects to optimize the performance of its physical plants. One such project involves adjusting the air changes per hour (ACH) in unoccupied operating rooms. As set forth in ANSI/ASHRAE/ASHE Standard 170-2013, “Ventilation of Heath Care Facilities,” and the 2010 Facility Guidelines Institute (FGI) guidelines, operating rooms must be maintained at strict temperature and humidity levels. Conditioning air to meet the guidelines consumes a large amount of energy, especially when operating rooms are occupied and experiencing the required 20 ACH.