Liverpool city council recently approved the planning application for the new Royal Liverpool University Hospital. The planning application was submitted by construction firm Carillion, which was selected as the preferred bidder for the project.

"It is now all systems go for the new hospital, which is fantastic news for the city," said Mayor of Liverpool, England, Joe Anderson. "This world class facility will bring massive health, education and economic benefits."

The new £429 million hospital is being built to meet the needs of people in Liverpool and Merseyside. It will be built on the current hospital site. The existing hospital will be demolished once its replacement is completed.

"The new Royal will be one of the biggest construction projects in the city," said Austin Bell, Project Director, Carillion. He said the project will provide 750 full-time construction jobs, with 60 per cent of the jobs going to local people.

LEED-gold certified Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago (Photo credit: Perkins+Will)

Sustainable architecture and design firm, Perkins+Will, has released a new study that contradicts the belief that sustainable hospital design is cost prohibitive.

The study, LEED Certified Hospitals: Perspectives on Capital Cost Premiums and Operational Benefits finds that the average capital cost premium for LEED-certified hospitals under 100,000 square feet was 1.24 per cent. The average cost premium for hospitals over 100,000 square feet is only 0.67 per cent.

Conducted by Robin Guenther, FAIA LEED AP, Breeze Glazer, LEED AP from Perkins+Will and Gail Vittori, LEED Fellow, from the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, the study was based on analysis of 15 LEED-certified hospitals.

Guenther and Vittori expanded their 2008 study of the capital cost premiums of 13 LEED-certified healthcare buildings. For the recently released study they interviewed project teams representing 15 LEED-certified hospitals.

"LEED certification is in fact one of the most sound investments a hospital can make in today's economy," said Guenther. "It delivers measurable economic, environmental and human health benefits."

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, hospitals are the largest contributor of carbon dioxide, creating approximately eight per cent of the nation's total carbon dioxide footprint. The healthcare sector is uniquely positioned within the green building movement to highlight the links between the environment and human health.

The Readiness Group Inc., a provider of operational readiness for capital development projects in healthcare, has partnered with Habitat for Humanity Canada to advance hospital equipment decommissioning.

The partnership is a result of the two organization working together on a decommissioning event at the Niagara Health System in St. Catharines, Ont. This event was a medical equipment and furniture decommissioning event.

Decommissioning events helps ensure legacy space is cleared, surplus items are donated to community not-for-profit organizations and significant materials are diverted from landfills.

The two facilities were emptied within six weeks by The Readiness Group and Habitat for Humanity Niagara. The organizations successfully decommissioned and reallocated 2,400 non-clinical assets. This type of partnership model maximizes benefits to the local community and the environment, while generating funds from the surplus assets to support the construction of more affordable homes in Canada.

"Partnership management has become a critical component to delivering outcomes now expected in a typical hospital decommissioning event" said Patricia Santiago, Principal at The Readiness Group Inc. "Our medical equipment decommissioning offering formalizes and strengthens these types of partnerships so hospitals can provide additional benefits to the local community."

Phase 1 of the Royal Inland Hospital's redevelopment project recently began. The project includes the new $79.8 million Clinical Services Building.

"Once complete, the Clinical Services Building will feature new expanded clinical outpatient space, improved building access and additional parking that will benefit patients not only in Kamloops, but across the Interior," said Terry Lake, British Columbia's Minister of Health.

Preparations for the site include excavating the front lawn of the hospital and relocating hydro and other utility services.

The Clinical Services Building will provide expanded space for services including the UBC medical school and clinical educational program, expanded medical outpatient services, up to 350 additional parking stalls and a walkway connecting the new building to the main hospital.

Construction on the building is expected to start in spring 2014 and take approximately two years to complete. The site preparation is being completed by Delnor Construction.

Interior Health is currently in the process of selecting a preferred proponent to design and build the new building. Three proponents were shortlisted and asked to submit requests for proposals in late August.

GE Healthcare's new silent MRI scanner was recently introduced in a Michigan hospital. Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, MI became the world's first hospital to use the new technology.

Called the Silent Scan, the new technology reduces excessive acoustic noise that is generated during an MRI scan. While conventional scanners can generate noise in excess of 108 decibels – comparably, a rock concert registers at 120 decibels– the Silent Scan reduces MR scanner noise to background sound levels.

"It is very exciting to be able to offer this technology to our patients at Spectrum Health," said Dr. Mark DeLano of Spectrum Health. "The response from our patients has been very gratifying. They tell us that the Silent Scans are essentially silent compared to conventional MRI scans. This reduces their anxiety about the procedure."

DeLano worked as part of a research collaboration with GE Healthcare to implement the technology. He says the Silent Scan will be especially beneficial to pediatric patients and claustrophobic patients. Noise is one of the major complaints from patients who undergo an MRI exam.

Historically, medical manufacturers have addressed the noise issue by using a combination of acoustic dampening material or performance degradation to reduce the noise level. Silent Scan has a new type of 3D MR acquisition, in combination with proprietary high-fidelity gradient and RF system electronics, noise is eliminated at the source, rather than dampened.