Inside Sunshine Hospital Event: Predictive Maintenance in Practice

How can healthcare engineering teams predict when critical hospital equipment may fail—before any visible warning signs appear? And how can hospitals reduce their environmental impact while continuing to deliver the highest standards of patient care?

These were among the important questions explored at Inside Sunshine Hospital: Predictive Maintenance in Practice, co-hosted by Western Health and the Institute of Healthcare Engineering, Australia (IHEA).

The event welcomed members of IHEA’s Victoria/Tasmania Branch, facilities and engineering professionals, consultants, industry partners and Department of Health representatives for a day of technical presentations, practical demonstrations and professional networking.

The program explored issues critical to the future of healthcare engineering and facilities management, including predictive maintenance, reliability-centred maintenance, condition monitoring, indoor air quality, sustainability, asset investment, fire protection and critical infrastructure.

Michael Goodman expertly served as Master of Ceremonies, ensuring the program ran smoothly and remained on schedule throughout the day.

The Critical Role of Healthcare Engineering

Stuart Smith from Western Health Support Services opened the session with an insightful overview of healthcare engineering services.

His presentation highlighted the often unseen but essential role engineering teams play in maintaining safe, reliable and continuously operating hospital environments.

From ventilation and water systems to electrical infrastructure and specialist medical environments, effective engineering and maintenance practices are fundamental to patient care.

Predicting Failure Before It Happens

Masoud Goudarzi, Reliability Engineer at Western Health, presented on the organisation’s reliability-centred maintenance strategies and its use of predictive maintenance technologies across critical hospital assets.

Rather than waiting for equipment to fail or relying solely on scheduled maintenance, predictive maintenance uses asset data, condition monitoring and diagnostic tools to identify changes in equipment performance.

Western Health’s program is delivering significant operational benefits, including:

• More than $100,000 in annual energy savings

• Reduced maintenance and repair costs

• Longer asset lifespans

• Improved reliability of critical infrastructure

• Earlier identification of potential equipment failures

• Better-informed maintenance planning

These outcomes demonstrate how reliability engineering can improve both financial performance and operational resilience within complex healthcare environments.

Building Asset Management Capability

Sharon Noble from the Institute of Quality Asset Management (IQAM) provided an overview of the education and professional development opportunities available to strengthen asset management capability across the healthcare sector.

Her presentation reinforced the importance of equipping engineering and facilities professionals with the knowledge and skills required to manage increasingly complex infrastructure portfolios.

Reducing Healthcare’s Environmental Impact

Professor Forbes McGain OAM, Director of Intensive Care at Footscray Hospital and a leading healthcare sustainability advocate, delivered a thought-provoking presentation on reducing the environmental impact of healthcare.

Attendees were particularly struck by the finding that the carbon footprint associated with a single intensive care bed can be equivalent to that of seven domestic homes.

Professor McGain also discussed world-leading research focused on reducing energy use within intensive care units.

Conducted in partnership with the University of Melbourne’s Healthcare Carbon Lab, the research includes Sunshine Hospital as one of only six participating sites globally.

The project demonstrates how clinical, engineering and research teams can work together to identify opportunities to reduce unnecessary energy consumption without compromising patient safety or quality of care.

Improving Indoor Air Quality and Energy Efficiency

Arash Ali from Camfil explored the relationship between air filtration, indoor air quality and energy consumption.

His presentation demonstrated how advanced filtration technologies can support cleaner indoor environments while also reducing the energy required to move air through hospital ventilation systems.

Attendees were left with the memorable reminder:

“If you don’t filter the air, your body will.”

The session highlighted the importance of considering both filtration performance and energy efficiency when selecting and maintaining air-handling systems.

Turning Asset Data into Better Decisions

Jeff Park from Veridian Pulse presented on proactive maintenance strategies that improve reliability, reduce operational risk and support more informed asset management decisions.

His presentation demonstrated how condition monitoring data can provide engineering teams with greater visibility of asset performance and help them prioritise maintenance activities before minor issues develop into costly failures.

Shane Scriven from SAS Asset Management then focused on translating technical evidence into effective investment proposals.

Engineering teams may understand that an asset requires replacement or improvement, but securing organisational funding depends on presenting the evidence through a clear and compelling business case.

His practical presentation offered valuable guidance on connecting engineering risks and benefits with organisational priorities, financial outcomes and decision-making requirements.

One particularly memorable observation was:

“Business cases are rejected due to the font.”

While delivered with humour, the message was clear: strong technical evidence must also be communicated professionally and in a format that decision-makers can readily understand.

Innovative Fire Protection Technologies

Muhammed Ayad from Victaulic concluded the technical presentations with an overview of innovative fire protection solutions for sensitive healthcare environments.

The presentation included a hybrid fire suppression system combining water and nitrogen as an alternative to traditional halon-based systems.

The technology has been installed within the data centre at the new Footscray Hospital and is designed for sensitive environments such as data rooms, imaging facilities and other critical spaces.

Behind the Scenes at Sunshine Hospital

Following lunch, attendees divided into two groups for a guided tour of the Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital building.

The tour provided a valuable behind-the-scenes look at the infrastructure required to support a modern healthcare facility.

Participants visited plant areas and observed practical demonstrations involving:

• Air-handling units

• Pump systems

• Vibration analysis equipment

• Thermal imaging tools

• Laser alignment systems

• Condition-monitoring technologies

These demonstrations showed how engineering teams can identify changes in equipment performance that may not be visible during routine inspections.

Vibration, temperature and alignment data can reveal developing faults, allowing teams to intervene before equipment failure affects hospital operations.

The hands-on component reinforced how predictive maintenance can enhance reliability, improve efficiency, reduce lifecycle costs and support a safer healthcare environment.

Collaboration for a More Resilient Future

The event provided an excellent opportunity for knowledge sharing, professional networking and exposure to emerging technologies and best practices in healthcare engineering.

By combining expert presentations with practical demonstrations, attendees gained insights that could be applied within their own hospitals, health services and organisations.

IHEA’s Victoria/Tasmania Branch extends its appreciation to the Western Health Engineering Department, all presenters, sponsors and attendees who contributed to the success of the event.

A special thank you is extended to major event sponsors Camfil and SAS Asset Management and IQAM, for their support.

Through collaboration, innovation and knowledge sharing, the healthcare engineering community is helping to create a more sustainable, reliable and resilient future for healthcare.