How Behavioral Energy Efficiency Cuts Healthcare Costs
Healthcare facilities operate around the clock and rely on energy-intensive equipment to deliver critical patient care. While major infrastructure upgrades can be costly, many hospitals and medical centers can significantly reduce energy expenses through simple behavioral and operational changes.
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Key Takeaways
Healthcare facilities face unique energy challenges due to 24/7 operations and high-powered medical equipment. However, behavioral efficiency strategies—such as optimizing scheduling, managing HVAC systems, and reducing plug loads—can significantly lower energy costs. By encouraging staff participation and tracking progress, healthcare organizations can improve sustainability while maintaining high-quality patient care.
Schedule energy-intensive equipment efficiently.
Implement “lights out” policies in unused areas.
Adjust HVAC settings by department and occupancy.
Power down non-essential electronics after hours.
Track progress with energy managers or green teams.
It takes a lot of energy for healthcare facilities to serve our communities with expert care and emergency services. Establishing sustainable healthcare practices is crucial for managing operating costs without compromising patient care. High-tech efficiency upgrades can consume hospital budgets, so they aren’t always a practical solution.
Fortunately, there are a wide variety of practical behavioral and operational changes that can optimize healthcare energy management. Discover the eight behavioral energy efficiency changes that can make a dramatic difference in healthcare energy costs.
Unique Energy Challenges Healthcare Facilities Face
Hospitals, medical offices, and other healthcare facilities are essential services with very unique energy needs. Facilities that offer critical care or an emergency room must have equipment and personnel ready 24/7 to respond to the needs of their patients. This includes highly energy intensive medical and imaging equipment. Hospital campuses with in-patient services must also balance the varying HVAC needs of patients, procedure rooms, and sterile environments. Needless to say, medical facilities consume a lot of power to provide top-tier patient care at a moment’s notice.
The healthcare industry accounts for 9% of the total energy consumed by the United States despite only occupying 4% of total commercial floorspace. Energy intensity of this level can severely impact operating budgets, which can be detrimental for nonprofit healthcare organizations. Fortunately, the typical hospital can save as much as 30% in energy costs – without sacrificing patient comfort – through behavioral energy efficiency and conservation practices.
8 Conservation Practices for Healthcare Energy Management
Healthcare energy management and conservation doesn’t have to involve major investments or complex technology. Simple behavioral and operational changes can have a big impact on your facility’s energy use and bottom line.
From the break room to the operating room, these simple adjustments can be implemented across any department to cut energy costs without expensive upgrades.
1. Optimize Scheduling in Energy-Intensive Areas
One of the most impactful changes a hospital can make to reduce energy costs is optimizing scheduling in energy-intensive areas. Facility managers can optimize operating rooms, sterilization units, imaging departments, and other specialties that use power-hungry medical equipment. Reducing downtime in these specific departments helps hospital systems cut energy expenses.
Thoughtful planning ensures that high-energy areas are used as efficiently as possible, preventing unnecessary energy waste from idle equipment. By creating a tighter operating schedule, you can improve your facility’s energy performance while maintaining excellent patient care standards. Patients appreciate the quick attention to their procedure while hospital staff minimize unnecessary energy use.
2. Incorporate a “Lights Out” Policy for Lighting
Lighting is a big contributor to expensive healthcare energy expenses, accounting for roughly 10% of the energy a hospital consumes. Fortunately, it’s easy to take control of healthcare lighting costs with a simple “Light’s Out” policy. Encourage staff to turn off lighting in non-essential areas, like offices, meeting rooms, and storage areas, when not in use.
If you want to take human error out of the equation, consider installing occupancy sensors. This seamless and automated lighting solution ensures that no energy is wasted illuminating an unoccupied space, especially during evenings and weekends. It’s a simple yet highly effective strategy to lower costs without impacting on daily operations.
3. Create Clear HVAC Guidelines for Each Department
HVAC systems account for roughly 52% of a hospital’s energy needs. Facility managers can reduce these costs by setting clear HVAC guidelines tailored to each department, time of day, and season. Critical areas, like operating rooms or sterile environments, require strict temperature and ventilation controls for patient safety. However, less critical spaces, such as offices or exam rooms, offer more flexibility.
By adjusting temperature set points based on occupancy and departmental usage patterns, hospitals optimize energy efficiency while ensuring patient comfort. These thoughtful HVAC guidelines reduce energy waste, lower costs, and ensure building systems run efficiently without overexerting HVAC components.
4. Minimize Air Changes Per Hour in Empty Operating Rooms
Operating rooms require frequent air changes per hour (ACH) to maintain safety, with minimum standards set at 15-20 ACH. Many hospitals, however, choose to operate these spaces between 20-30 ACH for better infection control. While occupied operating rooms require a high ACH rate for patient safety, unused operating rooms can safely reduce their ACH.
For example, a healthcare campus with 25 operating rooms can keep 5 rooms in an occupied status for emergency use. However, the remaining 20 rooms can likely be placed on a lower ACH rate from 6pm-6am, when no procedures are scheduled. Shortly before procedures are scheduled to begin the next day, facility managers can increase ACH back up to optimal levels. By adjusting ACH rates based on scheduling, healthcare facilities reduce HVAC strain, conserve energy, and cut costs without compromising safety.
5. Reduce Plug Load by Powering Down Non-Essential Electronics
If your medical facility operates on a fixed schedule, implementing a power-down policy can reduce unnecessary plug load. Non-essential devices like computers, monitors, and copiers can easily be unplugged at the end of the day. This simple practice reduces phantom energy consumption from electronics left on standby overnight.
For even greater control. Consider using smart power strips in areas that close during the evenings or weekends. Smart plugs and power strips allow facility managers to remotely shut off equipment as needed, reducing energy costs. This simple energy conservation tip cuts energy waste and costs while instilling behavioral energy efficiency among stuff.
6. Leverage Off-Peak Hours for Daily Operations
Many energy intensive organizations, like hospitals, can lower energy costs simply by changing the schedule of some daily operations. Many utility companies charge higher energy rates during periods of high demand, also called peak periods. Alternatively, they also charge lower energy rates during periods of less demand, or off-peak periods.
Healthcare facilities can take advantage of low, off-peak energy pricing by scheduling energy-intensive daily operations, like sterilization or laundry services, during these periods. For most areas, peak periods occur in the afternoons and early evenings. By switching some of these daily tasks to the night shift, hospitals can lower energy costs quite dramatically.
7. Make the Switch to Electronic Health Records
Digital charting, also called electronic health records (EHRs), helps hospitals save thousands of dollars every year. A cost-benefit analysis conducted by the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) found that health providers can save $86,400 over five years by switching to EHRs.
Not only does digital charting provide an abundance of cost savings, but it also improves patient care. EHRs reduce medical errors, help providers share information easily, and contribute to more coordinated and efficient health services. They also streamline the billing process and reduce paper waste, and the energy demands from printing and copying. Digital medical charting is equally cost-effective as it is eco-friendly.
8. Track Your Energy Savings and Environmental Impact
Creating sustainability and energy conservation habits is a worthy endeavor. However, hospital C-suite and staff can’t appreciate these efforts if no one is tracking progress. One option is to designate an energy manager or an interdepartmental “Green Team.” Their responsibility would be to create measurable energy saving goals for all healthcare facilities and departments.
Your Green Team tracks progress towards goals and works with leadership for larger opportunities, like green certifications from Energy Star or LEED. Energy managers can also be responsible for creating awareness campaigns, encouraging staff and visitors to participate in energy-saving initiatives. Ultimately, a dedicated Green Team or energy manager adds additional accountability to your healthcare facility’s goals.
Cleveland Clinic’s EcoCaregiver Program Reduces Energy Waste
Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit, multi-specialty medical center encompassing 3,000 full time physicians, 11,000 nurses, and 157,000+ annual hospital admissions. In 2014, Cleveland Clinic conducted an assessment that identified over $12 million in energy waste across their medical facilities. As a result, decision makers initiated their ambitious EcoCaregiver employee engagement program to reduce costs and decrease emissions.
Their employee training program teaches all staff about the organization’s larger sustainability goals, their industry partnerships to help achieve them, and actionable steps each employee can take to support the cause.
Each year, every member of Cleveland Clinic’s staff is assigned the EcoCaregiver energy efficiency training. In its first five years, the training program helped realize an 11.4% reduction in energy intensity across all facilities. They’ve also added a new “MyTwoCents” initiative that encourages employees to share their energy conservation and sustainability ideas.
The EcoCaregiver program is just one facet of Cleveland Clinic’s larger sustainability strategy. However, it highlights that even the simplest behavior changes can reduce operational costs and contribute to a healthier future.
Take Action Today to Reduce Healthcare Energy Costs Tomorrow
Implementing behavioral energy conservation practices is a powerful yet accessible way to reduce healthcare energy costs without sacrificing patient care. Simple, consistent operational changes across your facility can lead to an abundance of savings and a more sustainable future.
To amplify your conservation efforts, consider partnering with an experienced energy broker to explore cost-saving commercial energy solutions. Integrity Energy’s free brokerage services specialize in helping healthcare providers find cost-effective energy solutions that meet the unique demands of their industry. Request a free quote to explore unique commercial energy plans designed to support your healthcare energy management initiatives today!
Reduce Healthcare Energy Costs with Smarter Strategies
Integrity Energy helps healthcare organizations find cost-effective energy plans and efficiency strategies tailored to their unique operational needs. Connect with our energy experts to explore solutions that reduce operating costs while supporting reliable, high-quality patient care.
About the Author 
Gabrielle Carrara
