Ochsner.org

A team of 70 Ochsner Health System staffers recently scoured Ochsner Medical Center for hidden treasure.

But they weren’t looking for gold coins; they were looking for opportunities to make Ochsner more energy efficient as part of the General Electric Treasure Hunt, a global initiative designed to get large companies and corporations to identify and correct any existing energy inefficiencies.

Ochsner teamed up with GE in November 2009 to take part in the Treasure Hunt, a partnership System Vice President of Facilities, Real Estate and Support Services William Ward said will help to promote energy conservation across the region.

“I think with the energy crisis and all the talk about being green, it has come to be expected of a community asset like our hospital,” he said.  “We’re trying to do our part to be a leader in doing those things, and not just because they are trendy, because it makes sense in many different ways.”

The group of energy scavengers was made up of representatives from every area of expertise at Ochsner Medical Center, from office workers to contractors, Ward said.

“The idea was to get as many individuals involved as possible,” he said.  “Even though they may not have the expertise to understand how things work on the facilities side, they see things through a different set of eyes.”

After dividing into nine teams, they walked the hallways and stairwells searching for energy inefficiencies such as lights that are on around the clock and air conditioning units cooling rooms that are empty for hours at a time.

“The teams were sent out across the 2 million feet of our campus to look for certain things,” Ward said.  “One team may have looked for utilities and electrical lighting; one team may have been looking at how we are using water.  There were many different teams looking for many different ways to conserve energy.”

While Ward said the treasure hunt at Ochsner Medical Center is going to pay off in terms of energy and cost savings, and the job has only just begun.

“We now need to go and bring this same kind of rigor and energy to our other facilities and look at them in the same kind of vein to see what opportunities exist,” he said.  “I’d say about 80 to 90 percent of the things we uncovered here we’d probably find at any facility.  Everyone can do what we did.”