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The idea of "critical power" has no more important application than in the healthcare industry. With sensitive equipment that demands extreme levels of power quality to operate correctly, even a momentary lapse in power quality - or even worse - a power system failure, can result in a tragic event. Patients take for granted that when you check into a hospital, the lights won't suddenly turn off just as the surgeon is preparing to perform a delicate maneuver. Keeping power issues under wraps is no small task even at a small medical center, but it's especially demanding when you're one of the nation's largest healthcare facilities. Beaumont Hospital started in 1955 as a single 238-bed hospital suited to serve a small community in Royal Oak, Mich., and has grown into a two-hospital regional medical center, with outpatient locations throughout metro Detroit. In fact, the Royal Oak hospital is now a 1,061-bed tertiary care, teaching, research and referral hospital that is now the largest inpatient hospital in the country for inpatient volume and second for surgeries performed. Its medical staff includes more than 2,400 physicians representing more than 91 medical and surgical specialties. The Royal Oak facility is not only large in volume, scope and scale, but a heavyweight in terms of influence and reputation. It?s a regular industry award winner, and is repeatedly named on best hospital lists, such as the annual U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals list. And Beaumont Hospital continues to grow and rapidly expand its campus. But with this growth comes more demanding energy and power requirements and a significant staff to keep it running. In 1997, Beaumont brought in Optim, a company specializing in providing consulting and management services exclusively to hospitals and the healthcare industry for construction, technology and facilities programs, to provide energy efficient buildings and systems for the hospital.
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