How do I benchmark a hospital property?

  • Updated

The Hospital property type refers to a general medical and surgical hospital (including critical access hospitals and children’s hospitals). These facilities provide acute care services including emergency medical care, physician's office services, diagnostic care, ambulatory care, surgical care, and limited specialty services such as rehabilitation and cancer care. Hospitals must have in-patient beds and offer overnight care.

Hospitals must apply as a campus. This means the Hospital property should include all buildings that make up the campus, including Medical Office buildings and hotels owned by the hospital. Be sure to update the “Number of Buildings” field to reflect the number of buildings on the hospital campus, even if you're just benchmarking the parent property (the whole campus) and not entering any child buildings.

Gross Floor Area (GFA) should include all space within the hospital campus including:

  • operating rooms
  • patient rooms
  • emergency treatment areas
  • medical offices
  • exam rooms
  • administrative offices
  • laboratories
  • lobbies
  • atriums
  • cafeterias
  • gift shops
  • restrooms
  • stairways
  • corridors connecting buildings
  • storage areas
  • elevator shafts
  • power plants

Use Details
The following three use details are required to receive an ENERGY STAR score. They must be updated regularly:

  1. Number of Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) Workers should be computed as the total number of hours worked by all workers in a week divided by the standard hours worked by one full time worker in a week. Workers may include employees of the property, sub-contractors who are onsite regularly, and volunteers who perform regular onsite tasks to support facility operation. Workers should not include visitors to the property such as patients or family members. See How do I determine Number of Workers?
  2. Number of Staffed Beds is the number of beds set up and staffed for use by inpatients. This count does not include newborn bassinets, labor room, post anesthesia, or postoperative recovery room beds, psychiatric holding beds, and beds that are used only as holding facilities for patients prior to their transfer to another hospital/inpatient facility.
  3. Number of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines is a count of the MRIs that are present at the property. You should only include MRIs that are permanently at the property, which may include machines present in a mobile trailer only if the mobile trailer is present for 10 or more months. Do not include any other imaging equipment (X-ray, CT Scan, etc.).

To be eligible for the Hospital ENERGY STAR Score a property must have:

  1. More than 50% of the GFA of all buildings must be used for general medical and surgical services (not long-term acute care, specialty care, or ambulatory surgical services).
  2. More than 50% of the licensed beds must provide acute care services.

If your property does not meet this definition, it is not eligible for an ENERGY STAR score as a Hospital. However, it may be eligible under another healthcare property type:

  1. Ambulatory Surgical Center
  2. Medical Office (*eligible for a score and certification)
  3. Outpatient Rehabilitation/Physical Therapy
  4. Residential Care Facility
  5. Urgent Care/Clinic/Other Outpatient
  6. Senior Living Community (*eligible for a score and certification)
  7. Other - Specialty Hospital

Other questions you may have:



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