Facilities Team is the Invisible Engine of CCH
2025-08-16
It’s a job where success often
goes unnoticed. According to Michael McNally, the Director of Facilities
Services at Cornwall Community Hospital (CCH), “If you don’t know we’re here,
we’ve done our job.”
Running water, heating and
cooling systems, working lights, and functional medical equipment are things we
expect without thinking twice. But staying invisible doesn’t mean standing
still. The Facilities Team works 24/7 to keep the hospital safe, functional,
and comfortable for everyone who walks through the doors.
The small but mighty team,
overseen by Michael and Manager Donna Bates, is composed of three in-house
electricians (one of whom is also trained in biomedical equipment), an HVAC
technician, a plumber, and four general workers who handle repairs, painting,
patching, and everything in between.
Together, they manage an
incredible volume of work to ensure that everyone who enters the hospital is
supported by an environment that runs efficiently and reliably. Since April
1st, the team has responded to more than 1,700 maintenance tickets, an average
of 430 per month, through our internal Helpdesk system. Many of these involve
repairing beds, lifts, stretchers, and patient monitoring equipment.
CCH is a large and complex site,
with over 385,000 square feet of space in the main hospital and an additional
22,000 square feet in the Community Addiction and Mental Health Centre. Combined,
these buildings contain more than 1,000 rooms and more than 175 washrooms, all
of which fall under the Facilities Team’s care.
They also maintain a wide range
of infrastructure systems, such as air handling units, cooling towers, boilers,
generators, steam and water piping, building automation controls, transfer
switches, electrical panels, ice machines, plumbing fixtures, and more. On top
of that, the team supports various capital projects, responds to general
requests, sources materials, and installs signage across the campus, all while
quietly keeping things running in the background.
One example, of particular
relevance in recent weeks, is the team’s proactive response to changing air
quality conditions. As wildfire smoke becomes a more frequent issue, the
Facilities Team has installed specialized carbon filters in the hospital’s air
handling systems. These filters help remove harmful particulates from the air,
ensuring indoor conditions remain safe for patients, staff, and visitors.
For the Facilities Team, keeping
our cooling systems running smoothly is also a top priority during these hot
summer months. Like many hospitals, CCH relies on chilled water systems to
regulate both temperature and humidity in critical areas such as operating
rooms and inpatient care units. These systems play a critical role in
maintaining safe, sterile environments for medical procedures and patient care.
In the winter, the focus shifts
to keeping the hospital warm, a task made more complex by the fact that some of
the hospital’s boilers are more than 40 years old. Maintaining this equipment
requires deep institutional knowledge, hands-on experience, and constant upkeep
from our Facilities Team.
While the West Wing is relatively
new, having opened in 2014, other parts of the hospital are more than 70 years
old.
“While this comes with its share
of challenges,” adds Michael. “It also presents new opportunities to modernize
aging infrastructure, improve energy efficiency, and make the building more
accessible.”
Recent projects completed and
overseen by our Facilities Team include patient rooms and corridor upgrades,
several public area refreshes, parking lot resurfacing and lighting improvements,
and the ongoing replacement of outdated light fixtures with energy-efficient
LED alternatives.
When asked to describe her team, Donna
offered this comparison: “If you remember the show MacGyver, that’s our guys.
They can come up with a solution in any situation or emergency. They’re
incredible problem-solvers with an unmatched knowledge of the building and all
its idiosyncrasies.”
Whether they are repairing
equipment, regulating temperature during these warm months, keeping our air
clean, modernizing lighting, or fixing a leaky pipe no one ever sees, the
Facilities Team is the invisible engine powering the hospital every day.