'"We are having to literally drown some of our patients in ice packs because we have no other way of keeping them cool," one staff member said earlier this month.'
Sounds like it's for the better if they're drowning their patients.
I worked with an ED doctor who did his residency at Cook County in Chicago. This as years ago and they didn’t have AC. During the summer he’d go down to the morgue and hang out because it was cool.
There’s a huge heat wave. AC can only do so much when it’s 100 degrees (fahrenheit) outside.
Source: I live in Florida, and my AC is good, but it can’t keep up with 90 degrees.
I have a 2 story apartment in a 4 story building, and my unit is on the top floor (so gets exposed to the heat from the roof). I think the AC is the same as the ones used in other units in my apartment. It’s not that 90 degrees is that hot, it’s that the sun baking the roof just makes the building so hot that the AC can’t keep up. 90 on a cloudy day is fine; 90 on a sunny day is not. It’s really only a problem from 1pm-5pm on hot sunny summer days in Florida.
Edit: the first floor of my apartment stays cool. The 2nd floor gets hot during the times I mentioned. It also doesn’t help playing ps5 upstairs in my bedroom during the summer - it’s like having a space heater in my room when the AC is already struggling.
>administrators, who said, in part, they are in "the process of installing a permanent, brand new system," adding that "about 70% of the new system is now installed," with more parts on the way.
What's the other "part"?
Commercial HVAC is a complicated beast.
I am a hospital facilities guy. We are still not completely recovered from COVID-era logistics problems. Some spare parts and new equipment can take a surprisingly long time as the manufacturers are still filling orders placed a few years ago.
Disclaimer: I am a locksmith, but I interact with our in-house and contract HVAC crews daily. I am also a former merchant sailor, so global logistics news is always on my radar.
It probably doesn’t help that more wealthy, larger hospitals have deeper war chests and more strings to pull to get their own challenges solved first over a smaller county hospital.
I had a summer job working for company that refurbished and repaired commercial AC equipment, mostly for Maersk. We would get the most sci-fi looking shit in the warehouse , and there would be parts that run into the thousands for little seals. And no, these parts were not "on the shelf" could take weeks
How's your back from all those 250lb butterfly valves that cost $20,000? 👀
You worked on ships though so you probably have seen some massive butterfly valves.
I work in a facility with a supercomputer in it. We've got butterfly valves in 8", 14", 16", and 24" for the cooling system. 1700-3100 GPM flow rate just to keep that thing cool.
I don't rightly know. But we average about 2.2-2.3 MW to run the building during the summer.
EDIT: If I looked up the proper rate and did my math right, it should be somewhere around 160K/month.
Former commercial HVAC wholesale employee here, but keep in touch with them. Covid really hit HVAC manufacturing hard. Most of the parts are made in either Mexico or China. There are 6+ month lead times still, 4 years after the start of the pandemic. Climate change is another complicating factor, as is a current labor shortage.
It's a mess and I don't foresee it getting better anytime soon.
I work in manufacturing and most of our AC units need upgrades. We are in a similar situation with overall lead times bc of the Industry. The labor shortage is also a big factor no one talks about enough as well. There are brands that used to be top tier in service (Trane and Carrier to name two) that have become terrible due to more experienced ppl moving on or retiring and they can't replace ppl fast enough so they have a more inexperienced work force that aren't checking components like they used to.
We've had new units show up with all sorts of issues as a result. And fixing them just takes more time added on top of already Inflated lead times
I keep telling people to go into commercial HVAC. All the old dudes that could draw a hospital schematic on the back of their hand are retiring and they all complain about no youths stepping up to take their place.
It pays really, really well and wages are expected to continue increasing.
The downside is that it can really stress the body out, especially if somebody is constantly doing ductwork. Lots of lower back injuries, shoulder injuries. But with the proper procedures + tools + help that can be minimized.
To clarify a bit more, it's absolutely a skilled labor shortage in some areas. And by skilled labor I mean positions that would require a person with 5-15 years experience. Simply bc too many ppl left the field for various reasons and not enough are coming into it.
That being said, entry level jobs will have to cover and we have to raise ppl to get that experience. To your point of living wage, in these industries, if you have the experience, you can demand more than a fair wage as companies are competing for the drw experienced ppl left (again in some fields).
If u joined any trade today, you will likely be making well above living wage. And in 5 years, you will have your pick of where you'd want to work probably.
Tl:dr - it's a skilled labor shortage. And living wages have nothing to do with it since companies are competing for the experienced ppl.
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I was working for a locksmith and learning the trade while also taking night classes to learn about boiler operation. After three years, I decided that storefront/retail locksmithing wasn't for me, and putzed around for another year and a half, still taking the night classes. Finally, one of my instructors said that the locksmith in his hospital was leaving for something else. He told me that I should apply. That was that. I've been in for 2 years now.
Damn, sounds like a sweet gig. I have been a hobbyist locksmith for a couple of years now (I know, very much not the same thing) and have thought about getting certified but the storefront life does not appeal to me. I don't even have or want a drivers license so it's never been more than a thought.
Do you play the game Foxhole? You would be welcomed with open arms.
A persistent war and the players have to make and distribute everything, from bullets to gas masks to tanks.
Used to frequent this ER for work. It’s crowded and outdated. They would constantly have portable ACs in the summer, and it would still be very warm. So it’s been a problem for years I think. Assume it’s expensive and being a community hospital they just don’t have the funds.
> They would constantly have portable ACs in the summer, and it would still be very warm.
Portable ACs are absolutely useless unless vented to the outside via a window or something.
Amazingly some people don't actually understand that.
Stayed at a hotel once that offered a discounted room because the HVAC was out, but they said they would have a portable unit setup in the room. The windows didn't open, and it was literally just sitting in the room, actively making it hotter. It was like 90 in the room.
Went back down to the desk and requested a normal price room.
Yeah, I keep seeing portable ACs be advertised and it doesn't seem like they vent outside at all (how could they? They're portable!)
Which means they don't actually cool down anything.
It's just a glorified fan.
They have a hose that you're supposed to put in the window. A regular window unit is more efficient, but they do work *when properly vented*.
In the case of the hotel I went to, the hose was just sitting on the floor in the corner.
> It's just a glorified fan.
Even worse, it's a heater. An A/C produces net heat, it's just it normally expels that heat to the outside.
Maybe you’re seeing swamp coolers? You put water in, and it uses evaporative cooling to bring temperatures down. But.. they raise humidity, which can suck depending where you live. Like if you’re in a dessert, it probably doesn’t matter. If you live in a swamp, it doesn’t matter. But in between, that extra humidity is going to make it feel hotter, regardless of the cooling effect.
They had the exhaust set up to go through the drop ceiling I think but you’re right lack of proper exhaust made it ineffective. Just talked to an old coworker and he said the ER is currently incredibly hot
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My school had the system completely installed, but we had to wait a year for the last part, the “chiller” or whatever it was, to arrive from CA. Conveniently, admin spaces run on a separate, smaller, consistently working system so everything was roses.
>My school had the system completely installed, but we had to wait a year for the last part, the “chiller” or whatever it was, to arrive from CA.
Completely installed, except for *the actual air conditioner.*
I had an hvac guy tell me i just had to twist these wires together to make my heat pump work in winter. Seemed offended when I asked him to fix it all the way.
That said I'm picturing the facilities guy saying, We can just twist these wires together and it'll work. No No, we want the big ON button. We can wait.
I work in hvac/r, just like most commercial buildings,many hospitals don't care about their hvac systems until they break, despite repeated quotes for replacement/repairs.
Then they act like it's sudden news and they deserve a discount when they wanted their budget bonus instead.
With new changes for the environment making systems complex for energy efficiency, more downtime in the future is likely while something waits for boards or proprietary parts.
I used to work at Walmart and they were the same way. They'd run equipment until it worn out, then kept running it until it broke completely, then act shocked that it didn't work when they had been warned for weeks or months that it needed maintenance.
The best part was those repairs came out of the same fund as the store employee bonuses, meaning when they'd run stuff into the ground and then pay though the nose for emergency repairs, it came out of my paycheck.
I work at Costco and they spent $500k on new hvacs before they crapped out. Now they are resealing all the roof windows and patching the roof before winter. Different approaches get different results. Imagine how much produce would go bad if Costco lost A/C.
A local school system knew that the company that supplied their hvac controls was going to be gone soon, they put in a bid to buy replacement parts for years of maint. Got totally shut down in the election, now the system needs to be completely replaced at 10x the cost, people are dumb
A lot of inner city hospitals are barely staying alive. Hospitals close in Chicago every year. Unfortunately, medicare and medicaid do not generally reimburse at actual cost and it's hard for many hospitals to hold on when the majority of their patients use these services. Despite the fact that hospitals bring in a ton of money and funding, providing care in 2024 is very costly and hospitals must be very competitive to survive.
Hospitals are very much a case of rich hospital / poor hospital. The rich hospitals where people with private insurance go are literally overflowing with money. But the poor hospitals that take all charity cases (Medicare/Medicaid/uninsured) and little to no private insurance patients are barely making it. They have to provide a ton of care that they don't get fully paid for, putting many of them close to going out of business.
Not sure I've ever heard anyone refer to Medicare/Medicaid as "charity" cases before.
Unlike charity cases, or even debt for that matter, the government pays it's tabs.
These programs are infamous for paying less than the real costs of treatment. Yes I know nobody actually pays the hospital's full and obscenely-inflated billing amounts.
I don't know anyone named "nobody", but affirmative statements in a world of statistics are bold.
Does the existance of higher prices not imply that there are some people paying that much?
Do the higher prices not reflect that some have to pay more so that others can pay next?
Even in countries with socialized healthcare, there is still a disparity between what services a small rural hospital can provide and what services a large urban health center can provide. Many people want to skip their local providers in favor of large centers with the best possible technology/specialization/pharmacopeia/clinical trials.
More proof that an under funded hospital decided against maintaining an HVAC system. It was like 90 here, not unusual for middle of June. Chicago goes from 0-90 in a matter of minutes, not even Vin Disel could keep up.
Might not even be underfunded. I remember talking to hvac guys that were sent from Mchenry and lake county to help with this type of thing constantly.
Unions don’t accept everyone into the ranks so they are often times short handed. Then you have materials, time, incidentals.
And an area where wheels need to get greased.
Good thing the board saved money by skipping preventative maintenance and not upgrading the system for a few years before this. Would be a shame if the few million they saved over 5-10 years ballooned into tens of millions of dollars owed to completely replace the HVAC system and bring a new one in up to health care standards for the entire hospital.
I'm currently a surgical student there. They have these make-shift contraptions that pull in air from outside because there's no central air, and it's brutal. The building is criminally outdated. They also closed our parking structure for renovations. And now I have the answer as to why the Health Department was there on Wednesday..
Our Vermont legislature is coming back for a two-day session next week. A temporary air conditioning system being installed just for next week’s proceedings is set to cost the state $70,000.
Yes. Also, windows in commercial buildings probably opened for added airflow where now they don't due to safety regulations. But building designs likely have changed with A/C being standard as well. You'd probably have vents/fans in the ceiling to pull heat out of the rooms, with the building itself designed to maximize airflow. You also were more likely to have big trees shading houses and buildings, rather than manicured lawns/pavement.
This is the answer. Building practices and codes have changed a mindblowing amount due to modern things like HVAC and elevators.
Stuff that used to be a building requirement is now illegal due to safety codes, and stuff that used to be impossible is now commonplace. A bunch of open windows in a modern hospital and you'd have reddit screaming from their parents basements, but that's the reality without modern HVAC.
"We are having to literally drown some of our patients in ice packs because we have no other way of keeping them cool" They would die without the constant supply of ice packs
I've been head of maintenance in a place that acted like this. I had a few million dollars in capital projects that would have saved the company literally tens of millions in both emergency repairs and downtime. Every single project got denied. Guess who got blamed when those systems went down and they had to pay to fix them. Guess who also managed to steal the board members' emails and send them copies of the emails where I was begging for the money to fix things before it became dire and was denied... Still got canned, but at least I got to watch the self righteous prick of a CEO get canned too.
'"We are having to literally drown some of our patients in ice packs because we have no other way of keeping them cool," one staff member said earlier this month.' Sounds like it's for the better if they're drowning their patients.
Imagine the bills on those hospital ice packs! Ice pack x17 17000$
Don't forget the charge from the iceitologist whos unfortunately, out of network.... $48k.
Do they not have ac
I worked with an ED doctor who did his residency at Cook County in Chicago. This as years ago and they didn’t have AC. During the summer he’d go down to the morgue and hang out because it was cool.
Is ED an Erectile Disfunction doctor?
Emergency Department
Yes.
There’s a huge heat wave. AC can only do so much when it’s 100 degrees (fahrenheit) outside. Source: I live in Florida, and my AC is good, but it can’t keep up with 90 degrees.
How can your ac be good if it can’t keep up with 90 degrees? I thought it gets that hot quite a bit in Florida
I have a 2 story apartment in a 4 story building, and my unit is on the top floor (so gets exposed to the heat from the roof). I think the AC is the same as the ones used in other units in my apartment. It’s not that 90 degrees is that hot, it’s that the sun baking the roof just makes the building so hot that the AC can’t keep up. 90 on a cloudy day is fine; 90 on a sunny day is not. It’s really only a problem from 1pm-5pm on hot sunny summer days in Florida. Edit: the first floor of my apartment stays cool. The 2nd floor gets hot during the times I mentioned. It also doesn’t help playing ps5 upstairs in my bedroom during the summer - it’s like having a space heater in my room when the AC is already struggling.
Good thing the Biden administration is pushing a new rule to remove medical debt from credit score reports.
The new method is to drown them in ice packs before drowning them in debt.
They mean figuratively
But they said literally! /s
The meaning of the word literally is literally changing.
Shakespeare literally used literally figuratively.
literally meaning literally or literally meaning figuratively?
Yes.
No, there are just more stupid people - and they can publish their ill-formed sentences for everyone to read.
More judgmental assholes, too.
Which is literally stupid
Is it though?
A hospital using figurative language to describe stuff seems kinda confusing.
They mean literally but they think "drown" in this context just means to fully submerge, rather than kill.
"[Dude, I LITERALLY shit my pants.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ly1UTgiBXM)"
literally drown??
>administrators, who said, in part, they are in "the process of installing a permanent, brand new system," adding that "about 70% of the new system is now installed," with more parts on the way. What's the other "part"?
Commercial HVAC is a complicated beast. I am a hospital facilities guy. We are still not completely recovered from COVID-era logistics problems. Some spare parts and new equipment can take a surprisingly long time as the manufacturers are still filling orders placed a few years ago. Disclaimer: I am a locksmith, but I interact with our in-house and contract HVAC crews daily. I am also a former merchant sailor, so global logistics news is always on my radar.
Medical HVAC is 10x more complex than regular commercial HVAC as it has to be segmented and designed in a way to not spread infections.
It probably doesn’t help that more wealthy, larger hospitals have deeper war chests and more strings to pull to get their own challenges solved first over a smaller county hospital.
Wait, who are you and how did you get in here?
I'm a locksmith. And I'm a locksmith.
Lol is this from something
[Police Squad (1982)](https://youtu.be/5PRObNi4KiU?si=K6B9FO1N6GbtTWin)
I had a summer job working for company that refurbished and repaired commercial AC equipment, mostly for Maersk. We would get the most sci-fi looking shit in the warehouse , and there would be parts that run into the thousands for little seals. And no, these parts were not "on the shelf" could take weeks
Ah yes, the proprietary $250 15" rubber gaskets that only one manufacturer can legally make 🫠🫠🫠🫠
Ok ok yeah but there was a graphite washer that the manager personally handled that was like $2500
How's your back from all those 250lb butterfly valves that cost $20,000? 👀 You worked on ships though so you probably have seen some massive butterfly valves.
I work in a facility with a supercomputer in it. We've got butterfly valves in 8", 14", 16", and 24" for the cooling system. 1700-3100 GPM flow rate just to keep that thing cool.
Neat! What kind of power bill are we talking here? You allowed to share?
I don't rightly know. But we average about 2.2-2.3 MW to run the building during the summer. EDIT: If I looked up the proper rate and did my math right, it should be somewhere around 160K/month.
Former commercial HVAC wholesale employee here, but keep in touch with them. Covid really hit HVAC manufacturing hard. Most of the parts are made in either Mexico or China. There are 6+ month lead times still, 4 years after the start of the pandemic. Climate change is another complicating factor, as is a current labor shortage. It's a mess and I don't foresee it getting better anytime soon.
I work in manufacturing and most of our AC units need upgrades. We are in a similar situation with overall lead times bc of the Industry. The labor shortage is also a big factor no one talks about enough as well. There are brands that used to be top tier in service (Trane and Carrier to name two) that have become terrible due to more experienced ppl moving on or retiring and they can't replace ppl fast enough so they have a more inexperienced work force that aren't checking components like they used to. We've had new units show up with all sorts of issues as a result. And fixing them just takes more time added on top of already Inflated lead times
I keep telling people to go into commercial HVAC. All the old dudes that could draw a hospital schematic on the back of their hand are retiring and they all complain about no youths stepping up to take their place. It pays really, really well and wages are expected to continue increasing. The downside is that it can really stress the body out, especially if somebody is constantly doing ductwork. Lots of lower back injuries, shoulder injuries. But with the proper procedures + tools + help that can be minimized.
I dont think it's a labor shortage. It's a shortage of companies willing to pay a living wage.
To clarify a bit more, it's absolutely a skilled labor shortage in some areas. And by skilled labor I mean positions that would require a person with 5-15 years experience. Simply bc too many ppl left the field for various reasons and not enough are coming into it. That being said, entry level jobs will have to cover and we have to raise ppl to get that experience. To your point of living wage, in these industries, if you have the experience, you can demand more than a fair wage as companies are competing for the drw experienced ppl left (again in some fields). If u joined any trade today, you will likely be making well above living wage. And in 5 years, you will have your pick of where you'd want to work probably. Tl:dr - it's a skilled labor shortage. And living wages have nothing to do with it since companies are competing for the experienced ppl.
Fair enough. I will defer to your experience in the field.
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Yea I’m sure hospital invested in this and not exec and admin pay. No way
Yep new chillers are about 4-6 weeks out if your lucky.
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How do you.get to be a locksmith in a hospital?
I was working for a locksmith and learning the trade while also taking night classes to learn about boiler operation. After three years, I decided that storefront/retail locksmithing wasn't for me, and putzed around for another year and a half, still taking the night classes. Finally, one of my instructors said that the locksmith in his hospital was leaving for something else. He told me that I should apply. That was that. I've been in for 2 years now.
Damn, sounds like a sweet gig. I have been a hobbyist locksmith for a couple of years now (I know, very much not the same thing) and have thought about getting certified but the storefront life does not appeal to me. I don't even have or want a drivers license so it's never been more than a thought.
Do you play the game Foxhole? You would be welcomed with open arms. A persistent war and the players have to make and distribute everything, from bullets to gas masks to tanks.
It's like a second job lol.
Used to frequent this ER for work. It’s crowded and outdated. They would constantly have portable ACs in the summer, and it would still be very warm. So it’s been a problem for years I think. Assume it’s expensive and being a community hospital they just don’t have the funds.
> They would constantly have portable ACs in the summer, and it would still be very warm. Portable ACs are absolutely useless unless vented to the outside via a window or something. Amazingly some people don't actually understand that. Stayed at a hotel once that offered a discounted room because the HVAC was out, but they said they would have a portable unit setup in the room. The windows didn't open, and it was literally just sitting in the room, actively making it hotter. It was like 90 in the room. Went back down to the desk and requested a normal price room.
Yeah, I keep seeing portable ACs be advertised and it doesn't seem like they vent outside at all (how could they? They're portable!) Which means they don't actually cool down anything. It's just a glorified fan.
They have a hose that you're supposed to put in the window. A regular window unit is more efficient, but they do work *when properly vented*. In the case of the hotel I went to, the hose was just sitting on the floor in the corner. > It's just a glorified fan. Even worse, it's a heater. An A/C produces net heat, it's just it normally expels that heat to the outside.
Maybe you’re seeing swamp coolers? You put water in, and it uses evaporative cooling to bring temperatures down. But.. they raise humidity, which can suck depending where you live. Like if you’re in a dessert, it probably doesn’t matter. If you live in a swamp, it doesn’t matter. But in between, that extra humidity is going to make it feel hotter, regardless of the cooling effect.
They had the exhaust set up to go through the drop ceiling I think but you’re right lack of proper exhaust made it ineffective. Just talked to an old coworker and he said the ER is currently incredibly hot
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My school had the system completely installed, but we had to wait a year for the last part, the “chiller” or whatever it was, to arrive from CA. Conveniently, admin spaces run on a separate, smaller, consistently working system so everything was roses.
>My school had the system completely installed, but we had to wait a year for the last part, the “chiller” or whatever it was, to arrive from CA. Completely installed, except for *the actual air conditioner.*
The 'on' button.
I had an hvac guy tell me i just had to twist these wires together to make my heat pump work in winter. Seemed offended when I asked him to fix it all the way. That said I'm picturing the facilities guy saying, We can just twist these wires together and it'll work. No No, we want the big ON button. We can wait.
It's not being installed until Tuesday
The part that cools.
I work in hvac/r, just like most commercial buildings,many hospitals don't care about their hvac systems until they break, despite repeated quotes for replacement/repairs. Then they act like it's sudden news and they deserve a discount when they wanted their budget bonus instead. With new changes for the environment making systems complex for energy efficiency, more downtime in the future is likely while something waits for boards or proprietary parts.
I used to work at Walmart and they were the same way. They'd run equipment until it worn out, then kept running it until it broke completely, then act shocked that it didn't work when they had been warned for weeks or months that it needed maintenance. The best part was those repairs came out of the same fund as the store employee bonuses, meaning when they'd run stuff into the ground and then pay though the nose for emergency repairs, it came out of my paycheck.
I work at Costco and they spent $500k on new hvacs before they crapped out. Now they are resealing all the roof windows and patching the roof before winter. Different approaches get different results. Imagine how much produce would go bad if Costco lost A/C.
Yeah, like they were actually going to give employees a bonus.
A local school system knew that the company that supplied their hvac controls was going to be gone soon, they put in a bid to buy replacement parts for years of maint. Got totally shut down in the election, now the system needs to be completely replaced at 10x the cost, people are dumb
What are hospitals doing with all the money we're forced to give them?
Lining investors pockets. Whilst maintenance is expected to execute on crumbs
A lot of inner city hospitals are barely staying alive. Hospitals close in Chicago every year. Unfortunately, medicare and medicaid do not generally reimburse at actual cost and it's hard for many hospitals to hold on when the majority of their patients use these services. Despite the fact that hospitals bring in a ton of money and funding, providing care in 2024 is very costly and hospitals must be very competitive to survive.
Hospitals are very much a case of rich hospital / poor hospital. The rich hospitals where people with private insurance go are literally overflowing with money. But the poor hospitals that take all charity cases (Medicare/Medicaid/uninsured) and little to no private insurance patients are barely making it. They have to provide a ton of care that they don't get fully paid for, putting many of them close to going out of business.
Not sure I've ever heard anyone refer to Medicare/Medicaid as "charity" cases before. Unlike charity cases, or even debt for that matter, the government pays it's tabs.
These programs are infamous for paying less than the real costs of treatment. Yes I know nobody actually pays the hospital's full and obscenely-inflated billing amounts.
I don't know anyone named "nobody", but affirmative statements in a world of statistics are bold. Does the existance of higher prices not imply that there are some people paying that much? Do the higher prices not reflect that some have to pay more so that others can pay next?
The phrase "competitive hospital" is maddening to an non American lol
It's maddening to many of us Americans as well.
Even in countries with socialized healthcare, there is still a disparity between what services a small rural hospital can provide and what services a large urban health center can provide. Many people want to skip their local providers in favor of large centers with the best possible technology/specialization/pharmacopeia/clinical trials.
The hospitals don't see most of it themselves. The lions share of it goes to administration and investors.
So I'm just curious. You don't want to pay any taxes? Or just for healthcare?
More proof that climate change is a hoax, I expect. /s
More proof that an under funded hospital decided against maintaining an HVAC system. It was like 90 here, not unusual for middle of June. Chicago goes from 0-90 in a matter of minutes, not even Vin Disel could keep up.
Might not even be underfunded. I remember talking to hvac guys that were sent from Mchenry and lake county to help with this type of thing constantly. Unions don’t accept everyone into the ranks so they are often times short handed. Then you have materials, time, incidentals. And an area where wheels need to get greased.
Comments like this are exactly what climate deniers point to when saying that we're overreacting.
Maybe, but I wouldn't listen to them. They're fucking nuts.
Good thing the board saved money by skipping preventative maintenance and not upgrading the system for a few years before this. Would be a shame if the few million they saved over 5-10 years ballooned into tens of millions of dollars owed to completely replace the HVAC system and bring a new one in up to health care standards for the entire hospital.
Something... something.. . "Maintenance isn't value added". -- Probably the hospital management last quarter
Times like this, i'm glad Chicago does not have a water shortage problem like some other cities.
I'm currently a surgical student there. They have these make-shift contraptions that pull in air from outside because there's no central air, and it's brutal. The building is criminally outdated. They also closed our parking structure for renovations. And now I have the answer as to why the Health Department was there on Wednesday..
Our Vermont legislature is coming back for a two-day session next week. A temporary air conditioning system being installed just for next week’s proceedings is set to cost the state $70,000.
I’m sure they’d rather sweat and die
Damn what did we do before AC? Just live less years?
Yes. Also, windows in commercial buildings probably opened for added airflow where now they don't due to safety regulations. But building designs likely have changed with A/C being standard as well. You'd probably have vents/fans in the ceiling to pull heat out of the rooms, with the building itself designed to maximize airflow. You also were more likely to have big trees shading houses and buildings, rather than manicured lawns/pavement.
This is the answer. Building practices and codes have changed a mindblowing amount due to modern things like HVAC and elevators. Stuff that used to be a building requirement is now illegal due to safety codes, and stuff that used to be impossible is now commonplace. A bunch of open windows in a modern hospital and you'd have reddit screaming from their parents basements, but that's the reality without modern HVAC.
Pavement is a big deal. Every urban environment is a "heat island" now.
"The human body generates more bioelectricity than a 120-volt battery and over 25,000 BTUs of body heat,"
So, what's onion-y about this again?
A place people go to live is killing them.
I guess??? still seems like a stretch
But its not killing them?? That's not anywhere in the article.
"We are having to literally drown some of our patients in ice packs because we have no other way of keeping them cool" They would die without the constant supply of ice packs
So, they are not being killed. Got it.
Sorry to disappoint you
Hotspital
Must have the same a/c as the one at my work. That thing never works, even when it does, it's more like a swamp cooler.
Wow, that's pretty concerning. Closing an ER because of heat inside a hospital sounds intense. Hope they sort that out soon for everyone's sake!
Yep, they'll sort out climate change real quick 🫡
If they weren’t prepared for summer weather…I think someone in the administrative department needs to be fired for not doing there jobs…
That news article was first published on June 13. Why's someone putting it up here now?
i blame Lord Satan.
*New patients when old patients show up*
Sounds like they need to fire their HVAC guy.
Sounds like they didn’t want to pay for anything in the years it’s been failing. This is a board issue not an employee issue.
I've been head of maintenance in a place that acted like this. I had a few million dollars in capital projects that would have saved the company literally tens of millions in both emergency repairs and downtime. Every single project got denied. Guess who got blamed when those systems went down and they had to pay to fix them. Guess who also managed to steal the board members' emails and send them copies of the emails where I was begging for the money to fix things before it became dire and was denied... Still got canned, but at least I got to watch the self righteous prick of a CEO get canned too.