Call it a hat trick. Saint Barnabas Hospital in Livingston, NJ, cut energy costs, mercury levels and harmonic distortions with no extra cost through the installation of a new lighting system in the one million-sq ft facility. An example of "doing well by doing good," the payback is both in dollars and a more healthy environment. The 645-bed hospital is part of the much larger Saint Barnabas Health Care System, which includes nine hospitals, nine nursing homes and rehabilitation centers, and other health-related facilities. SBHCS is NJ's largest integrated health care delivery system, according to vice president Bob Carretta, who says of the new light- ing, "when we find a product that reduces hazards in our facilities, we are eager to embrace it." He adds that "it's certainly an advantage that the lighting is better and the cost competitive." Paul Mulcahy, facility manager for Saint Barnabas Hospital, says the lighting upgrade (requiring an estimated 6000-10,000 T8 fluorescent lamps from Philips Lighting Company North America and 2000-3000 electronic ballasts from sister company Advance Transformer) is part of a larger renovation within SBHCS. In a "one patient room a day operation," workers have installed new lighting, painted, repaired and completed "general face lifts" down to the door knobs, he says. Every room has been refurbished, and every over-bed light and bathroom lighting fixture upgraded. The retrofit is continuing throughout seven other SBHSC facilities (three others have already been converted to T8s) and will extend to hallways and offices after patient rooms are completed. The entire SBHCS lighting program should be com-pleted by 2005.
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