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By Eileen McMorrow — If you’re seeking specification solutions for healthcare projects, there are several winners from The Nightingale Awards, a partnership of the Healthcare Design Conference + Expo and Healthcare Design magazine. The jurors, healthcare facility managers and hospital system designers, reviewed products during the show in Kansas City. See “Nightingale Awards honor innovative healthcare products; DIRTT wins Best of Competition for COVE exam module” from October 27 when the winners were announced.
As the founder of The Nightingale Awards in the 1990s, I remain the director of the competition, screening year-round for qualified healthcare juror candidates and coordinating the entries with the manufacturers on behalf of Healthcare Design. The winners are referenced by category, award, manufacturer, product name and a link to the product site.
Nightingale Award winners for 2025 include:
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Dirty cooling towers can cause a massive loss of efficiency for your HVAC system. Scale build-up in your cooling tower fill will limit the cooling effect and strain your entire system. The accumulation of debris, bacteria, and other organics in your cooling tower basin can adversely affect your chiller's performance, requiring frequent cleanings to maintain optimal efficiency and keep energy costs down. However, a dirty basin can cause more challenges as it can also cause severe health issues for anyone within proximity. Studies have shown that microdroplets from cooling towers can travel miles, which means that any visitor within that proximity could be exposed to dangerous bacteria. Cleaning towers of Legionella breeding sludge is a smart, simple way to limit bacterial growth.
The Goodway CTV-1501 cooling tower vacuum allows operators to quickly remove mud, silt and debris from cooling tower basins, reducing the environment where bacteria, like Legionella, thrive.
Sponsored by Goodway
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The Global Sepsis Alliance (GSA) has just released an update on the incidence of sepsis, which often leads to death and has been shown to be linked not only to infectious diseases but to non-communicable conditions. Published in The Lancet Global Health, the new global estimates show a dramatic rise in sepsis burden and the reversing of trends (largely due to Covid-19) after decades of progress in reducing sepsis deaths. The estimates strengthen GSA’s message for the urgency of action against sepsis.
For a quick overview of the issue, see GSA’s World Sepsis Day explanation and video: What is Sepsis?, and their Prevent Sepsis page. See also the bulleted list at the end of this story for recommended resources on how environmental cleaning and disinfecting can help prevent infections that can lead to sepsis.
Key findings include:
• Adults aged 15+ saw a 230% rise in sepsis incidence and 26% rise in sepsis mortality since 1990.
• Older adults (70+) now face the highest burden, with over 9 million deaths annually.
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Facility managers face a unique challenge: every choice under their watch must strike the right balance between cost, durability and performance. The products they specify aren’t just checks on a list — they’re commitments that shape the daily experience of spaces, influence how people use them and determine how well those environments endure over time.
Manufacturers committed to U.S. craft production, high design and sustainable operation provide facility managers with the confidence that their investments will perform for decades. By prioritizing longevity, ease of care and thoughtful design, these companies align with both short-term operational needs and long-term stewardship of spaces, helping facilities operate more smoothly, effectively and beautifully.
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Landscape Forms White Paper
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Taking place February 2-4 in Las Vegas, AHR Expo 2026 will host 1800 exhibitors and 50,000 attendees. AHR Expo, the International Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Exposition, brings the entire HVACR (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration) industry together to showcase cutting-edge products and technologies, gain insights from industry leaders, foster cross-disciplinary collaboration, and drive business and career growth.
AHR attendees range from product designers, engineers and architects to installers, end-users and facility operators. They come to explore best practices, trends, and key issues facing the HVACR industry with the expansive education program featuring accredited sessions including AHR Panel Discussions, Seminar Sessions, New Product Presentations, Podcast Pavilions and For-Credit Sessions. Healthcare facility managers attending AHR 2026 may want to consider participating in the sessions listed below to learn how to improve their buildings’ operations using automation, new technologies, carbon-reduction measures and standards that improve air quality and thermal comfort.
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The San Diego Convention Center (SDCC) recently unveiled a new suite of Mamava lactation pods. The modern, freestanding spaces advance the facility’s commitment to serving the needs of all convention guests, especially during large-scale events that draw tens of thousands of attendees daily.
Augmenting two existing Mothers Lounges, both on the ground level, the four new Mamava pods will be available on all three levels of the Convention Center to offer convenient options for guests and workers alike. Each pod is equipped with easy-to-clean surfaces, convenient power outlets, and secure, app-enabled entry. Parents can use the free Mamava app to find the pods and Mothers Lounges, and to open the pods using the app.
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In today’s fast-moving world, building owners face increasing pressure to reduce energy use, meet sustainability goals, and improve occupant comfort — all while managing tight budgets. But if your facility still relies on a legacy building automation system (BAS), achieving these goals can seem out of reach.
The good news? You don’t have to start from scratch. S4 Integration Solutions believes that legacy systems — especially Johnson Controls Metasys N2 networks — can still deliver value when paired with modern, open protocols like BACnet. S4IS’s BACnet N2 Integration product bridges the gap between your existing N2 devices and today’s smart building platforms.
Why upgrade instead of replace?
Replacing a BAS is expensive, disruptive, and often unnecessary. In many buildings, field-level devices (like sensors, actuators, and controllers) are still perfectly functional. The problem lies in their inability to communicate with modern building management systems (BMS) or value-added applications.
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Since 2010, Darryl Pitcher, a high-ranking healthcare executive in Australia, has had a front-row seat to opportunities the International Federation of Healthcare Engineering (IFHE) World Congress affords its host country. Through participation in events in Argentina and the Netherlands, and as a host of the 2018 World Congress in Australia, the IFHE past president has seen that “despite differences in voltage and water quality and temperature and climate and other factors, there’s a lot of commonalities across healthcare, regardless of where care is being delivered.”
Innovative ideas and best practices are not confined by borders, according to Pitcher. Healthcare professionals who attend the 2026 IFHE World Congress in New Orleans will have an unparalleled opportunity to gain “insight on a range of issues including environmental sustainability, safety, quality, emerging technologies and global trends” from peers already putting next-gen solutions in place in countries around the world. The U.S. representative to IFHE, the Association of Medical Facility Professionals (AMFP), in partnership with EmeraldX, will host the IFHE World Congress in October 2026, co-located with the Healthcare Design (HCD) Conference + Expo. Facilities leaders, designers, engineers and managers will gain access to a robust range of international insight.
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