Industry News

The University of Texas Medical Branch is planning to build the $438 million Jennie Sealy Hospital in Galveston. The facility will provide a 50-bed ICU, 250 patient rooms, and advanced surgical suites. Occupancy is expected in early 2016.

Sault College will open a 75,000-sf academic facility in September of 2011 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The three-story complex provides 19 flexible classrooms, three learning commons, a 120-seat lecture hall, a justice studies suite with a forensic science lab and a combat training center, and space for the College's aviation program. The facility features sustainable design elements and was completed on-time and on-budget. 

The American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) of the American Hospital Association has published a monograph titled Operating Room HVAC Setback Strategies. The monograph, which is part of a series of publications that cover single topics in clinical/biomedical engineering, facility engineering, design and construction, and safety and security management, details how operating room HVAC setback strategies can save energy. An operating room (OR) setback strategy reduces energy use by curtailing the amount of air supplied to an OR when the room is not in use.

The $109 million Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center will open in September of 2011 in Gilbert, Ariz. The 133,000-sf outpatient facility will offer collaborative, integrated treatment for all types of cancers. The center will support 75 physicians. 

The University of Texas at El Paso will open the College of Health Sciences and School of Nursing facility in September of 2011. The four-story, 138,000-sf building houses a clinical simulation center, classrooms, seminar rooms, study lounges, and laboratories for teaching and research.