Product reliability and customer service are important, but not always common currency among products and companies. When St. Edwards Mercy Medical Center’s existing HVAC control system was not working properly, and management was receiving poor customer service, they looked to KMC Controls and TL Services.

“Our main goal is to always achieve customer satisfaction,” said David Springer, the energy management controller. “Whether that consists of cooling off a surgery suite for a doctor or turning a manual process into an automated one, providing a quick and satisfactory response goes hand in hand with the KMC network of controls.”

St. Edwards Mercy Medical Center has an active environment and is constantly performing construction/renovation work. New add-ons and remodeling jobs make communications throughout the facility a challenge. Educating the contractors on what can and can’t be taken out is essential to maintaining good relations. Keeping connectivity throughout the various networks is St. Edwards largest challenge. The versatility and flexibility of KMC, via its use of networks, allows St. Edwards to perform tasks from any PC loaded that would otherwise involve employees walking all over the facility.

“Having to efficiently maintain a building of this size requires a lot of individual units to maintain air quality,” Springer said. “Having all of those individual controls easily accessible from one central PC is simply an outstanding achievement. It allows any user to simply point and click to find out room temperature, set point, temperature trend, etc., on any controlled point existing on the system.”

During a building addition, two additional LAN controllers and a new chiller plant were added. Incorporating the chiller programming across the Ethernet network had some initial problems, but KMC and TL Services provided excellent support, and everyone worked together until the problems were resolved.

KMC products have also been integrated into other facility functions. Seasonal lighting is controlled using a photo eye, shared across the Ethernet network to four sub-networks, to control lighting contactors. A sink, used for patients receiving radioactive therapy, is controlled by a simple time on/time off program. Isolation rooms are monitored using specialized pressure monitors incorporated into the network.

Currently, there are over 50,000 points in the system monitoring the environment at all times, and the number continues to rise. St. Edwards and TL Services are integrating the laboratory fume hood system and remote resets of the pneumatic tube stations into the network.

“St. Edwards Mercy Medical Center has chosen KMC Controls as the provider of choice because of the local presence, quality of customer service, and product reliability,” said Terry Looper, President of TL Services. “We have corrected existing problems and continue providing top-notch customer service.”