Campus Safety, Business Continuity and Brand Protection

On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy made landfall just north of Atlantic City. Despite being compliant with some of the most stringent codes in the facilities management industry, several New York City hospitals were forced to evacuate during the height of the storm. One in particular had to evacuate 45 critical care patients and 20 babies down stairwells lit by cellphones while another hospital attempted to carry diesel fuel by bucket brigade from its underground storage tanks to its rooftop generators. The challenge for New York City residents did not end with Sandy moving on as one hospital took more than four months to recover and open back up putting pressure on all other hospitals in the area to make up the shortage in critical services this closure caused.

Other large, nearby hospitals with the exact same aging infrastructure challenges not only survived Sandy but were able to be fully recovered and were providing the increased capacity to make up for that lost from their area competitors.

The difference between the two outcomes was neither geography nor maintenance resources, but was instead philosophy.  While those hospitals that closed focused on compliance with codes, those that stayed open used Resiliency to drive decision making.

In the aftermath of Sandy, New York City reevaluated their codes and discovered that despite existing codes being well thought out, well written, and well enforced, they applied to discreet, tactical elements instead of holistic preparedness strategies. NYC set up a task force to change this and on June 11, 2013, they released a comprehensive plan entitled “A Stronger, More Resilient New York” (http://www.nyc.gov/html/sirr/html/report/report.shtml).

All large and complex campuses are subject to codes whether the function of the campus is to house administrative, manufacturing, higher education or other uses.  Generally speaking, these codes are not as stringent nor are they as well enforced as those in healthcare portfolios as the latter is subject to near continuous outside agency inspection for compliance. As codes are always the required minimum, there is significant room for leaders to learn from other industries and to improve the resiliency of their portfolios.

Resiliency = Reliability + Redundancy + Recoverability
Capability = Capacity + Compliance + Credibility

Reliability means that critical equipment and systems stay functional through their operating envelope and risks to their operating envelope are mitigated or removed. Examples of removing envelope risks is raising generators out of basements where they could be subject to internal or external floods or moving transformers inside buildings where it is less likely to be struck by a car, a tree branch or a lightning bolt. Examples of keeping equipment operating include reliance on preventive or predictive maintenance and real time monitoring.

Redundancy means that critical equipment and systems have a ready back up to ensure that end users do not experience outages during a reliability failure. Examples include a double ended, double fed line up with automatic transfer switches for switchgear feeding critical research or student sheltering locations.

Recoverability means that critical equipment and systems can be brought back on line quickly following a failure. Examples include procurement contracts for portable chillers and generators, and designing mechanical rooms for easy change out of large equipment.

Capacity is an organization’s or system’s ability to absorb surges. This could apply to a recall plan, cross training of technical skills or extra boiler capacity for a record cold spell.

Compliance is the ability to document both code and organizational goal data. Examples include annual water quality testing, monthly fire bottle checks and Occupational Health and Safety Administration training. This documentation is necessary to find and strengthen areas where the program is falling short of goals.

Credibility only comes from being willing to track and publish both failures and successes. This crucial step is what allows the program to continue to improve over time.

The goal of a Resiliency Program is to prevent emergencies and this is best accomplished by building Resiliency and Capability into every aspect of normal operations. The goal ties together the planning, design, construction, maintenance and procurement functions in a way that delivers a seamless focus on preparedness.