Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Kenneth C. Griffin Surgical Tower

Overview

A new five-story surgical tower replacing the hospital’s outdated operating rooms with state-of-the-art surgical suites, enabling augmented reality during surgery and virtual reality surgical planning, providing innovative solutions to complex medical procedures.

Designed to meet LEEDv4 BD+C: Healthcare standards, the tower features an energy-efficient water-cooled low-temperature chiller to serve the new operating rooms. The chiller will provide its rejected heat to the return heat hot water system, increasing the efficiency of the cooling process while providing free reheat energy to offset the heating energy used on the heating hot water loop. This cooling mechanism is projected to achieve 32% cost savings against the baseline.

The Variable Air Volume (VAV) terminal units serving the operating rooms have an unoccupied setback mode to minimize airflow and allowable air changes for energy savings. This system is equipped with VAV terminal units on the return air ducts to control offset airflow in the return air system.

The central energy plant expansion includes additional chillers and generators, providing the necessary infrastructure to support the tower’s operations. The helipad required relocating from the emergency department to the top of the adjoining Advanced Pediatric Care Pavilion.

Features

Tower also includes private pre- and post-surgical care spaces, a central sterile processing department, a lab, and a pharmacy.