Reducing maintenance expense while improving patient safety by

predicting electrical system failures

University of Pittsburgh Medical CenterPittsburgh, PA

Project AimEngineering and Maintenance will reduce the risk of major electrical equipment failures by implementing a predictive maintenance approach using infrared thermography.

By predicting and repairing imminent failures, 1.Electrical unplanned downtime will be reduced by 50 %.2.Repair costs of damaged equipment will be reduced by 50 %.

Equipment that is running too hot is at a greater risk of failure. Failures result in electrical outages that can affect hospital equipment, elevators, red outlets, normal power, lighting, communications, HVAC, and everythingelse that plugs into the wall.

Project Team Members

Ed Dudek Assistant Vice President

John Noel Compliance Manager

Matt Nelson Database Administrator

Jim Verratti Electrical Systems Manager

Ray Flaherty Electrician

Mike Masucci Electrician

Chris Barreca Electrician

Dennis Kwolek Electrician

Gina Lehman Senior Quality Improvement Coordinator

Quality Indicators• Cost of repairs and replacement parts

• Amount of scheduled downtime for repairs

• Estimated cost of damaged/failed equipment if failure had occurred

• Estimated amount of unscheduled downtime if failure had occurred• Estimated potential hospital costs if failure had occurred (ex:

unscheduled downtime in ORs due to power loss)

• Probable effects of the failure that was prevented

Example preventable equipment explosion (this did not happen at UPMC) .

Old Process• UPMC electricians performed scheduled Preventive

Maintenance of all major electrical equipment including:– Visual inspections– Electrical metering– Thermometer temperature analysis

Visual inspections have a limited ability to predict that this equipment is at risk of failure.

– Load balancing• Equipment was repaired as

needed to prevent electrical outages.

• It was difficult to predict equipment that is at risk of failure.

Why implement thermography at UPMC?

Events occurring using the old processFirst event• Problem: transformer malfunction• Cost: $56,000• Downtime: 12 hours of electrical downtime and 36 week wait time

for equipment replacement with temporary repairs.• This failure would have been prevented with only 1 hour of repair

downtime if the equipment had been thermal imaged. No equipment damage would have occurred.

Second event• Problem: Hospital wing sub feeder breaker recurring failures,

ongoing approximately 2 times per year.• Effect of failure: Electrical equipment outage. Capital expenses

required to replace damaged electrical switchgear.• Cost: $6,000 per year in equipment replacement and labor.• Downtime: 4+ hours per event.• These unplanned breaker failures could have been prevented

with thermal imaging.

Process improvement• UPMC implemented infrared thermography as an addition to

the Preventive Maintenance program.• UPMC electricians scan electrical equipment with an infrared

thermal camera to predict equipment failures.• Electrical repairs can now be scheduled to correct problems

before failures occurred which would have caused extended

Infrared thermography helps the electrician to predict that this same piece of equipment (from the previous slide) is at imminent risk of failure.

Note the temperature difference between

normal operations at 100 degrees F, and the poorly functioning equipment at 179 degrees F.

downtime and equipment damage.

Project Implementation• UPMC electricians were trained and certified

to use the infrared thermal camera.• UPMC electricians incorporated infrared

thermography as part of the scheduled Preventive Maintenance of all major electrical equipment.

• Project team met monthly to analyze thermal imaging data and findings.

• All major electrical equipment is scheduled to be scanned once every 2 years.

New ProcessUPMC electricians utilize thermal imaging software to analyze and record equipment operating information.

These reports are analyzed to determine failure risks and identify appropriate repair measures.

In this example, visual inspections (top photo) do not reveal any problems. When conducting thermal imaging (bottom photo), it is easy to determine that a breaker is operating too hot at 120 degrees F.

Repairs need to be scheduled to change the load on the circuit. A failure would result in several hours of downtime, possible equipment damage, and possible injuries to patients or staff.

Outcome Results

When at risk equipment was found and repaired; Engineering and Maintenance management estimated downtime and repair costs that would have likely occurred if the failure had not been predicted.

81% reduction in system downtime

75% reduction in repair and equipment damage costs

12 months of project data

Infrared thermography saved UPMC:• 267 hours of estimated unplanned electrical downtime.

• $57,633.96 in estimated damaged equipment, parts and labor.

• $1,008,995 in estimated hospital costs affecting operating rooms, patient

rooms, and other hospital facilities.

Patient safety and EOC benefits provided:• Prevented 12 ORs from being unavailable for 24 hours in one event, and 5

ORs from being unavailable for 24 hours for a second event.

• Saved a research freezer containing 30 years of irreplaceable DNA research.

• Prevented multiple failures of normal power, emergency power and

lighting throughout the facility potentially lasting several hours each.

Next Steps• Acquire additional infrared thermal cameras to scan electrical equipment

more frequently.• Provide additional staff training and certification on camera operation

and equipment evaluation.• Research and implement other scanning technologies such as ultrasound.• Expansion to scan additional equipment (motors, fans, plumbing, HVAC,

building envelope).• Expansion to include additional UPMC facilities.

• Difficult to scan all equipment in multiple buildings with 1 camera.

• Cost of staff training and thermal cameras.

• Difficult to access some patient areas for scanning.

• Difficult to schedule some repairs due to hospital operations (affecting ORs, ICUs, etc).

Barriers