Mission driven engineering behind the Bethesda Mental Health Clinic.

The Bethesda Clinic is a $60 million private mental health care facility created by Bethesda Health Care. Behind this clinic is a story of how our engineers became mission-driven; to create an exemplar of mental health care for patients and facility operators. The intent of the project called for world-class patient care and facility operational performance that turned sustainability goals into new commercial advantages.

Lucid's in-house, multi-discipline approach added value to the critical plant and systems to help achieve the project's intent. We collaboratively solved significant technical issues through the design process of the electrical, mechanical, fire, hydraulic, and vertical transportation services.

There's a lot more #engineeringjoy we can relate, but here are just a few highlights:

Patient Care, Comfort, and Recovery

People have different thermal comfort needs at different times of their care, so we integrated VAV boxes with heating banks. This allows patients to set the temperature in a customized range that suits their needs for comfort level at any time they need it. The lighting design sought to meet clinical requirements while also creating a feel to enhance patient health and visual comfort with low amounts of glare.

Our solution helps people feel at ease with their surroundings by minimising an 'institutional' appearance.

Plant and Power Systems

The thermal plant leads the market for energy efficiency and has flexible control engineered-in to extend the life of the system while reducing maintenance costs.

The Lucid team captured the opportunity to electrify heating, cooling, and hot water by removing gas from the central plant systems. The solution provided significant OPEX savings, better environmental outcomes, with high coefficient of performance (CoP) and a reduction in plant space.

Seamless performance in the event of network power failure was in collaboration with the facilities manager and design team to create a power supply matrix. All power supplies (Uninterruptible, Essential Life Safety, Vital, and Normal Power Supplies) have an equipment load profile and required run time to suit the facility's operational requirements.

Bespoke Fire Engineering solutions based on the client's operational usage provide CAPEX reductions.

The team at Lucid enjoyed not just the technical challenges, but also the value created for the intent of the project. When engineering meets human needs, especially in a healthcare setting, the personal satisfaction within the team is tremendous.

And to have achieved this with a collaborative spirit, both internally and externally, makes this project a real example of #engineeringjoy.