With the help of Siemens, a clinic in Germany has been designed for sustainability right from the start, thanks to a concept that makes environmentally-friendly, patient-friendly operation of hospitals and clinics possible. Siemens was involved as early as the planning phase in the Ethianum in Heidelberg, a clinic for plastic surgery, aesthetic surgery and preventive medicine. The clinic recently completed its first 100 days of operation. Many of the clinic’s systems, such as its energy management concept, much of its most modern medical equipment, and its communications infrastructure are from the Siemens Green+ Hospitals program.A hospital that operates sustainably must be environmentally friendly and offer medical care that is not only efficient but also tailored to patient needs. And this is possible only where there are energy-efficient building systems and medical equipment, well-structured examinations and treatments for optimal medical care, and patient accommodation with maximum possible comfort. In the Ethianum these technologies are almost all from a single source, which is how the clinic satisfies all the criteria.

Energy management accounts for the largest part of the sustainable concept. What makes it special are the many communication links between systems, including the heating, ventilation, and lighting. When a patient turns on the air conditioning in his room, for instance, the blinds are automatically lowered before the cooling is activated. In addition, all energy meters are continually read by the control center, which compares the data with that from the previous month or the preceding year, and then issues a warning if energy use is increasing or if savings potential is identified.

Other sustainable components from Siemens are the communication system and several pieces of medical equipment. Using a bed-side multimedia terminal, for instance, a patient can call up his or her examination appointments, as well as watch television, a video, or access Internet offerings. And medical personnel can use a chip card to call up hospital information system data on the terminal. Further contributions to sustainability are provided by a magnetic resonance tomography scanner with low operating costs and a digital X-ray system that exposes patients to the lowest possible dose of X-ray radiation.