The Customer
Shands at the University of Florida is one of the Southeast's premier academic health centers. Quality and patient safety are their top priorities. They are widely recognized for providing exceptional patient care and customer service throughout their facilities. From patient satisfaction initiatives to quality improvement, Shands at UF is dedicated to creating and maintaining a culture of operational and service excellence.
Within the hospital itself, there were a number of internal customers to satisfy. They included:
- Medical personnel (doctors, nurses, staff)
- Maintenance staff
- Administrators
The Challenge
To provide an electrical wiring device solution that meets the needs of the variety of constituencies within the facility. Administrators are tasked with keeping construction and maintenance schedules on-time and within budget. Medical staff relies on the ease of use and durability of electrical devices while also satisfying the need to easily identify the emergency circuits in cases of power interruption. Maintenance personnel are concerned with solutions that allow them to perform maintenance tasks more quickly and safely, while causing minimal disruption to facility operations. Shands needed to find a solution to address all of these concerns.
The Solution
The key to the solution was a perfect blend of technology and people. The technology deployed at Shands centered on Leviton's state of the art Lev-Lok® modular wiring device system. The unique design of this system allowed for a much quicker installation versus conventional wiring devices, helping the construction timeline to stay on schedule and within budget. This same feature also allows for quicker device change-out, minimizing service interruption - a must for mission critical environments.
This product line also includes a suite of extra heavy duty hospital grade receptacles, including MRI versions for use in areas exposed to strong magnetic fields and illuminated or power indication versions that provide at-a-glance confirmation that power is present at a receptacle - ideal for use on emergency power circuits. The breadth of configurations - which also includes toggle switches and occupancy sensors - allows an entire facility to be outfitted with Lev-Lok devices.
The people side of this solution required the engagement of several organizations, including:
- Shands at UF (Customer), Larry Baker and Richie Berger - Maintenance Supervisors
- Affiliated Engineers Inc (Technical Consultants), Erik Baker - Electrical Engineer
- Borrell Electric Co. (Electrical Contractor), Brian Patterson - Senior Project Manager
- Graybar (Electrical Distributor), Chad Reddish - Project Manager
At the hub of all these spokes, was Leviton Sales Representative, Paul Dube. Constant communications and diligent follow up were a daily activity. Instrumental in keeping the follow of data going was Graybar's Chad Reddish. Being at the ready to Shands during the design qualification stages was a key differentiator in securing the installation rights at Shands. Shands management has been so pleased with our product and support that they made sure that our Lev-Lok wiring devices will be installed for another project they are constructing - a four-story medical office building.