St. Elizabeth Hospital Heart, Lung & Vascular Center achieves LEED Gold Certification
09 / 08 / 2010
Go to Newsroom
Maria Nelson, Media Relations
Affinity Health System
(920) 720-1752
(920) 554-0686 (pager)
APPLETON, Wis. – The St. Elizabeth Hospital Heart, Lung & Vascular Center, which opened in August 2009, has been awarded LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Certification through the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).
The Heart, Lung & Vascular Center joins six other LEED Certified Affinity facilities: the St. Elizabeth Hospital south edition and five Affinity Medical Group clinics: Brillion clinic, Darboy clinic, Greenville clinic, Deerwood clinic and Little Chute clinic.
The clinic, located on the St. Elizabeth Hospital campus, encompasses a vertical expansion of 9,600 square feet, an adjacent two-story, 11,200 square foot addition and 3,000 square feet of interior remodeled space at the existing hospital. The building features earth tones and sound-proofing materials to create a relaxing environment for patients.
Affinity is an industry leader in sustainable design and has been recognized by a number of national health and environmental agencies, such as Practice Greenhealth, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Green Tier Program and USGBC.
Elements of the building that contribute to the LEED Gold Certification include:
- Plumbing fixtures that reduce the water use by more than 30 percent
- Construction waste management plan that achieved 65 percent recycle rate
- Materials with high recycled content were purchased locally
- A thermal comfort permanent monitoring system
- Interior lighting that offers a 48.3 percent savings
- Electric space cooling that offers a 42.3 percent savings
- Heat rejection that offers a 94.1 percent savings
- Interior fans that offer a 79.5 percent savings
- Pumps/humidification that offer a 77.7 percent savings
The combination of the above savings with other systems allowed the Heart, Lung & Vascular Center to achieve a net result of 16.6 percent energy use savings and an energy cost savings of 26.9 percent over baseline systems.
The facility also features a green roof, which in addition to adding a healing benefit to patients, also has the following features:
- Protects and restores habitat
- Maximizes open space
- Uses water-efficient landscaping
- Optimizes energy performance
- Uses recycled content
- Uses regional materials
“Since 2005, all Affinity construction projects look for innovative opportunities to preserve and protect our environment,” said Gary Kusnierz, vice president of performance excellence for Affinity Health System. “Incorporating sustainable design directly aligns with Affinity’s mission and values. While the Heart, Lung & Vascular Center was built with the goal of reducing its impact on the environment, it also was built with the patient in mind and with the goal of providing the highest level of personalized care.”
The Heart, Lung & Vascular Center is the second phase of the overall master plan on the St. Elizabeth Hospital campus and provides medical office space for cardiology, pulmonology, cardiovascular surgery and an anti-coagulation clinic above the existing cardiac rehabilitation space. Exam space is designed to offer the patient a personal interaction with their doctor and other medical personnel.
The LEED Green Building Rating System is a voluntary standards and certification program created by the U.S. Green Building Council that recognizes environmentally friendly construction projects. LEED design follows six criteria:
- Sustained site development
- Water efficiency and savings
- Energy efficiency and savings
- Conservation of materials and selection
- Indoor environmental quality
- Innovation in design
###
###
For the Editor:
Affinity Health System, a faith-based regional health care network, is the Fox Valley’s second-largest employer, according to the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce & Industry. For the fourth consecutive year, Affinity has been named one of the nation’s top 64 health systems based on clinical performance according to Thomson Reuters, a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of health care. For ten consecutive years, Affinity Health System has been named to the SDI (formerly Verispan) Integrated Health Network Top 100, an annual assessment of the 100 most highly integrated health care networks in the nation. Both St. Elizabeth Hospital in Appleton and Mercy Medical Center in Oshkosh rank among the top 1 percent of hospitals nationwide in terms of quality and efficiency, as determined by the 2007 Premier | CareScience Select practice National Quality Award. Members of Affinity include Mercy Medical Center and Mercy Health Foundation, Oshkosh; St. Elizabeth Hospital and the St. Elizabeth Hospital Foundation, Appleton; Affinity Medical Group, a regional network of 25 family practice and specialty clinics – 22 of which are recognized as NCQA Level III medical homes, the highest level of recognition – in 14 communities; Calumet Medical Center, Chilton; and Affinity Occupational Health.