Sunshine Hospital Site Tour: Predictive Maintenance, Smart Infrastructure and Healthcare Asset Reliability

Vanessa Galina
Jun 2
4 min read

IHEA is pleased to invite members and industry colleagues to an upcoming professional development event and site tour at Sunshine Hospital, hosted in collaboration with Western Health.

This practical session will bring together healthcare engineers, asset managers, clinicians, suppliers and infrastructure professionals to explore how predictive maintenance, condition monitoring, indoor air quality, fire suppression and smarter asset management approaches are being applied across modern healthcare environments.

The event will feature presentations from Western Health, the Asset Management Council, Camfil, Veridian Pulse, SAS Asset Management, Victaulic and healthcare sustainability leader Forbes McGain OAM, followed by practical plant room demonstrations and a guided site tour.

From Reactive to Predictive Maintenance

A key focus of the session will be the transition from reactive maintenance to predictive, risk-based asset management in healthcare facilities.

Healthcare infrastructure operates in high-consequence environments, where unplanned asset failure can directly affect patient safety, clinical services and business continuity. Predictive maintenance and condition monitoring provide a pathway to identify emerging issues earlier, support more informed maintenance decisions and reduce the likelihood of unexpected failures.

Masoud Goudarzi from Western Health will present on advancing healthcare reliability through condition monitoring and predictive maintenance. His session will explore how reliability engineering, vibration analysis, infrared thermography, ultrasonic testing and data-driven maintenance strategies can improve asset performance across critical hospital infrastructure systems.

Veridian Pulse will also share practical insights from implementation in live healthcare environments, exploring lessons learned, observed outcomes and the value of predictive maintenance in supporting better operational decision-making.

Practical Demonstrations in the Plant Room

The site tour component will provide attendees with a hands-on look at predictive and precision maintenance tools in action.

Attendees will be split into two rotating groups for practical workshops in the plant rooms. These workshops will demonstrate:

Precision maintenance tools used on HVAC equipment, including air handling units and pumps
Predictive maintenance tools, including vibration data collection and thermal imaging
Online monitoring tools used on live HVAC equipment
Practical approaches to identifying issues before they escalate into failures

These demonstrations will provide attendees with an opportunity to see how condition monitoring can be applied in real healthcare plant environments, supporting improved reliability, safety and efficiency.

Smarter Business Cases for Healthcare Engineering Projects

The program will also examine how healthcare engineers can better communicate the value of infrastructure investment to executive teams and Boards.

Shane Scriven, Founder and Managing Director of SAS Asset Management, will present The Boardroom Playbook: Winning Business Cases for Healthcare Engineering Projects. This session will address a common challenge for engineers: the technical data may be strong, the risk may be clear, and the numbers may stack up — yet the business case can still stall.

Shane will explore how to better frame engineering proposals in terms of clinical outcomes, organisational risk, capital priorities and executive decision-making. Attendees will gain practical insight into how Boards assess investment proposals and how engineers can translate asset condition and performance data into language that supports stronger decision-making.

Healthcare Sustainability and Low-Value Care

Forbes McGain OAM will present Can I Safely Setback the Sterilisers and the HVAC?, exploring the research foundation for setting back operating theatre HVAC and steam steriliser systems during periods of low activity.

Many hospitals operate 24/7, yet not all systems need to run continuously at full capacity. This session will examine whether some forms of energy use may represent low-value care — adding little or no benefit to patients while contributing to financial and environmental waste.

Forbes will discuss work being undertaken by the Western Health and University of Melbourne NHMRC team to reduce low-value care and support more sustainable healthcare operations.

Indoor Air Quality, Filtration and Energy Implications

Arash Ali from Camfil will present on Optimising Indoor Air Quality in Healthcare Facilities: Filtration Strategies, Standards and Energy Implications.

Indoor air quality remains a critical consideration in healthcare environments, where filtration performance, particulate matter, ventilation standards, infection prevention and energy consumption must all be carefully balanced.

The session will examine practical considerations for improving air quality while supporting sustainability, compliance and operational efficiency. It will also consider the role of life cycle cost analysis in making informed filtration decisions.

Hybrid Fire Suppression for Sensitive Healthcare Environments

Victaulic will also join the program to present on the Victaulic Vortex system installed at the new Footscray Hospital data centre.

This hybrid fire suppression system is designed for sensitive facilities such as data centres, MRI rooms and other critical environments. The system does not require tight room integrity and is suitable for green design approaches, making it particularly relevant for healthcare facilities where continuity, safety and sustainability are key considerations.

The presentation will provide insight into how fire suppression technologies are evolving to meet the needs of modern, high-value and sensitive healthcare infrastructure.

Western Health Site Tour

The formal presentations will be followed by a Sunshine Hospital site tour and practical workshops, hosted by the Western Health team.

The tour will provide a valuable opportunity to see healthcare engineering principles in action and understand how predictive maintenance, condition monitoring and asset reliability strategies are being applied in a live hospital environment.

Attendees will have the opportunity to engage directly with speakers, sponsors and industry colleagues, with the event concluding over lunch and networking.