The Healthcare Industry is under increasing pressure to reduce costs, provide excellent patient care, and provide state of the art technology. In fact, CMS reported the average Profit Margin for US hospitals in 2007 was 5.7%, leaving no room for error. In addition to improving revenue, the other two top concerns for healthcare executives are reducing risk and increasing employee retention.

This session will begin with our Walk The Talk Overview, providing facility managers with the basic knowledge to calculate a facility projects ROI (Return on Investment) or payback, NPV (Net Present Value), average age of plant, net profit and equivalent patient revenues, establish a budget; and how incorporating this information into their annual budget planning and justification process can achieve the level of funding needed.

Our first panelist, Todd Smith, Certified Energy Manager and Certified Sustainable Design Professional through the Association of Energy Engineers. Smith will provide several case studies that demonstrate how to identify operational improvements throughout the physical plant and how to incorporate that into a proforma analysis for approval of funds by the CFO. Smith''s process begins with a visual inspection of the plant, evaluation of utility spend, interview infection control practitioners, and review of patient satisfaction surveys. Not only does Smith look to identify a reduction in capital spend, but he also identifies ways to extend the life of facility assets while meeting Environment of Care standards, opportunities to reduce risk in surgical suites and improve operating conditions for physicians and nurses, and provide information that links the physical environment to patient satisfaction.

Our second panelist, Dave Garman, Corporate Facility Manager, Tenet Healthcare Corporation, began his program by first identifying Tenets areas of risk. Teaming with the hospital systems risk manager, Garman classified Tenets incidences in four categories: fire, MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing), building envelope (walls, roofs, windows, parking structures) and catastrophic events. With the support of Tenets CFO, Garman then approached Tenets major property insurance providers for reduced insurance premiums on the premise that Tenet would develop a programmatic approach to reducing incidences in each of the four areas. Garman then used the reduction in insurance premiums to fund their multi-year risk based programs based upon predictive testing.

Alan Neuner, our final panelist, Associate Vice President Facility Operations, Geisinger Health System. Geisinger Health System is an integrated health system with facilities dispersed across a 42-county service area in central and northeastern Pennsylvania. As Associate Vice President for Facilities Operations, Neuner is responsible for 200 employees servicing a physical plant of four million square feet. He links all facilities projects with a multi-year plan that includes the ROI per project and an average ROI, which can then we linked to equivalent patient revenues. Neuners program began with a beta of Geisingers main campus in Danville. Neuner and his staff devised a creative strategy to manage energy resources, which resulted in a reduction in overall energy utilization while the physical plant expanded by more than 50 percent. He applied his initial success at Danville across the system, and will present a number of alternate ways of funding infrastructure needs and setting measurable goals that will ultimately reduce your operating cost, extend the life of your facility assets, and establish your credibility with the C-Suite.

After the panelists have provided their overviews the floor will be open for questions and answers. In addition, the panel will allow audience members to submit facility upgrade challenges that they have had difficulty getting funding, for which the panel will provide recommended next steps for them to leave the conference to implement.