NRHA provides a range of care services to the NOR-MAN region of Manitoba.

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MCW/AGE Consulting Professional Engineers

NOR-MAN Regional Health Authority (NRHA) is a modestly sized healthcare organization, but that does not keep it from trying new concepts, Executive Director of Planning Susan Lockhart says. Instead, the authority’s staff is frequently “given the opportunity to take chances,” she says. “We’ve done a lot of neat and creative things.”   

NRHA’s corporate office is in Flin Flon, Manitoba, Canada. NRHA provides healthcare to the NOR-MAN region of its province, which covers 72,000 square kilometers. “We have about 25,000 residents that access our services in NOR-MAN,” Lockhart says, adding that it also serves approximately 8,000 residents of northeastern Saskatchewan.    

NRHA was established in 1997 and offers a range of services including acute care, long-term care, home care, preventive and community health, and mental health services. “We basically provide the full continuum of care services [to the] region,” she says.

‘Working and Safe’
Recently, the authority has shown its creativity as it has focused on improving its locations, Lockhart says. Initially, NRHA developed a master plan that identified several “old, operationally inefficient facilities” within its system, she says. Among them is its St. Anthony’s Hospital, which was built in The Pas, Manitoba, in 1928.   

However, when NRHA approached Manitoba Health about building new facilities, due to the provincial fiscal environment at the time, the authority was unable to secure funding. “It was sort of a crossroads for us at that point,” Lockhart remembers.    

Manitoba Health did, however, commit to providing capital dollars to maintain the facilities. “Manitoba Health said to us, ‘We will help you to keep your buildings up and working and safe,’” she recalls. Due to the age and operating dollars associated with keeping the buildings functioning, the authority needed to be creative and investigate ways it could make the old buildings more operationally efficient.
 
Getting Close to LEED
NRHA has set energy reduction targets and focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the renovations of its facilities. “What we’ve really tried to do, with all of our capital planning, is look at green buildings and [get] as close as we can to LEED certification,” Lockhart says.   

In 2003, the authority joined the Energy Innovators Initiative, which is a program sponsored by Natural Resource Canada’s (NRCan) Office of Energy Efficiency. Its participation in the NRCan Program has allowed NRHA to have access to more than $140,000 in federal incentives and enjoy recognition by its peers.   

The following year, NRHA hired MCW Custom Energy Solutions to conduct a feasibility study that identified upgrades that would lead to energy cost savings.    

In 2007, the authority entered an Energy Management Service Contract with MCW for the retrofits within its facilities. Through the contract, $219,500 worth of energy cost savings are guaranteed to NRHA annually, with a capital investment of approximately $2 million and a project payout of 13 years.   

The authority has also received numerous grants, in excess of $200,000, to aid the financing of this project, Lockhart says. These have included the NRCan Energy Innovator’s Initiative and MB Hydro Power Smart Incentives.

“[We] started [the renovations] just after Christmas last year,” Lockhart says, adding that NRHA hopes to have them finished this fall. The enhancement and retrofits include new lighting systems, automated building controls, domestic water reduction and ozone generators in its laundry and HVAC system upgrades. Work continues on the last of these upgrades, but will be completed by the end of November 2008.  

NRHA has also looked at incorporating other green measures with some of its other capital projects. For instance, at The Pas EMS Facility, the authority recently installed a new geothermal heating and cooling system. “As a result of that, [we can] achieve a 25 percent reduction in energy usage,” Lockhart says.     

Despite the ongoing work, NRHA has not had to shut down any of its facilities. Instead, “Because we have old buildings, I think our staff are kind of used to having capital projects [occurring in them],” Lockhart says.  “[We’ve run] business as usual.”
 
Doing Its Part
NRHA has generated outside interest with its renovation projects, Lockhart says. For instance, Manitoba Health asked members of the authority to tell its story at a capital-planning day focused on green design.    

Held on Oct. 17, the capital-planning day gave Manitoba Health the chance to introduce its new Greenhouse Gas Reduction Strategy with a focus on a funding model for renovation projects. Capital planning personnel from every region of Manitoba attended the session.   

“We were the first in our province, as a regional health authority, to undertake [these initiatives],” Lockhart says.   

She adds that she personally believes that green initiatives should not be limited to healthcare.   

Instead, “All industries need to be a part of this, from a personal to an industry level,” she explains. “We all need to do our part in improving our environment. It’s all [so we can] leave something for our children or grandchildren.”    

In addition to looking at ways to improve energy management, “We’re working on [the] development of a waste management strategy right now, [and] on other kinds of upgrades,” Lockhart says. She adds she wants the authority to stand as a leader that shares “our success and our challenges with other regions.”