The BION Times - July 2022 Edition

Proudly Presents our Newsletter:

The BION Times

July 2022 Edition

A Message from Josie Geiger, CEO

Hello, BION! This newsletter brings you a new Project Highlight, more healthy living tips in the BION Cares section, a special introduction to our new HR Director and much more. I find that these newsletters are getting increasingly long. What this tells me is that we have much to share with you. I’m happy that this newsletter gives us an avenue to share it with you.

Though you might not be able to read them all at once, each newsletter has a link to the prior newsletter. It’s located at the bottom of the newsletter. Feel free to go back and read them when your time allows. And…… please continue sending in your ideas for news articles. You could be our next lucky winner of a $50 gift card!

Happy summer!

Josie

BION Cares

THE IMPORTANCE OF STAYING HYDRATED

Did you know that the human body is comprised of over 70% water?!

Here’s the breakdown to further explain:

The brain and heart are composed of 73% water, and the lungs are about 83% water. The skin contains 64% water. Muscles and kidneys are 79%, and even the bones are watery: 31%!!!

Basically, water is a vital part of life! Your body depends on water to survive.

Every cell, tissue, and organ in your body needs water to work properly.

Drinking water is one of the easiest things we can do to improve our health and help prevent sickness but research shows more than half of adults in the U.S. don't drink enough water.

There are many great benefits to drinking more water:

Improved brain function
Improved sleep quality
Digestive harmony
More energy
Weight loss/management
Decreased joint pain
Better body temperature regulation
Kidney stone prevention
Healthier heart
Improved detoxification
Fewer headaches

HOW MUCH WATER DO YOU NEED?

One of the most popular methods of determining this is to divide your current weight in half. Some experts suggest that this is the minimum amount of ounces of water your body needs when it is at rest. Be aware that water intake may need to be adjusted depending on increased activity and environmental changes such as warmer temperatures.

Drinking a glass of water when you first wake up in the morning is very important as your body has been fasting for 6+ hours. Drinking water first thing in the morning flushes the stomach and therefore balances the lymphatic system. A stable lymphatic system will help build a strong immune system, which will prevent us from getting sick as often.

Consuming lots of foods high in water such as fruits and vegetables is also very beneficial. A helpful list of examples can be found here: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325958

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU ARE DEHYDRATED?

You may begin to experience one or more of the following symptoms:

Excessive thirst
Fatigue
Hunger
Dry Mouth
Muscle weakness/cramping
Headache
Dizziness or lightheadedness

If you start to notice these warning signs, do not ignore them!

Immediately take a break, drink more water, and give yourself time to recover.

On average, adults lose almost 10 cups of water a day simply by sweating, breathing and going to the bathroom. Along with water, you also lose electrolytes, which are vital because they help maintain the balance of fluids in the body. When you become dehydrated, your body cannot function optimally, possibly resulting in heat stroke or even death.

In the simplest terms, dehydration occurs when you lose more water than you take in. Staying hydrated is important to keep all your body functions running smoothly. Whenever you are working outdoors or in warm environments, you’ll want to take extra precautions as the temperature heats up. Skip coffee or soda, and make water your beverage of choice.

During periods of heavy exertion, take frequent water breaks. Adjust your intake to match your activity level and working conditions to stay healthy and alert.

Please note: BION provides free water at all job sites. Please drink as much as needed. Remember to properly dispose of empty water bottles.

BION cares about you and your family! Stay hydrated and stay healthy!

Article written by Cera Yacarini. Cera (pronounced Sara) is BION’s Service Department Administrative Assistant and Billing Expert. Cera has a passion for all things healthy but especially for hydration. Over the last year, she has been researching and learning about alkalized water and the affects is has on the body and environment.

Given that Cera did such a thorough job on our hydration article, Dr. Dave is taking a break this month. He'll be back in August. In the meantime, he told me to tell you, "Thank you all again for all you do."

The CDC recommends the following tips to drink more water:

Carry a water bottle with you and refill it throughout the day
Freeze some freezer safe water bottles. Pack with your lunch for ice-cold water later in the day
Choose water over sugary drinks...always
Opt for water when eating out. You'll save money and reduce calories
Make it the "norm" to serve water during meals
Add a wedge of lime or lemon to your water to improve the taste

This newsletter is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical advice, and no doctor/patient relationship is formed. The use of information contained in this newsletter or materials linked within is at your own discretion and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Do not delay in obtaining medical treatment from a health care professional for any medical symptom or condition you may have.

Project Highlight

THE MISSION: Refurbish (3) Air Handler Units (AHU) serving the busy Emergency Department at Inova Fairfax Hospital without losing air conditioning or pressure.

MISSION ACCEPTED: The project included changing out supply fan motors, VFDs for the supply motors, both the heating hot water and chilled water coils, and upgrading the AHU controls on each of the (3) AHUs. The AHUs up for refurbishment were AHU 1 serving ED South and AHUs 2 & 3 serving ED North. AHU 1 is the bigger of the three units and most notable the purple-ist. The trick, as with most of our work, was to preform the replacement of these integral parts without anyone noticing. Over the last 13 plus years, due to the often heroic efforts of our staff, BION has become known for being able to do what seems impossible. Because YOU continue to perform at this level, BION was the only contractor trusted to do this critical work.

So how did we attack this Mission Impossible? As is standard operating procedure for BION, a lot of thought and planning went into it prior to assembling the crew. The primary planning objective being getting the work done without causing interruption to the Emergency Department. The planning began with Don Ripley and Dave Determan, who were later assisted by James Burdette and Jake Rinker. They devised a plan to utilize the BION 10 ton temporary AHU to provide cooling and airflow when AHU 1 was down. The planning team identified a concern that the temporary AHU wouldn’t be able to keep up with the summer demand for cooling. Determan suggested adding additional cooling capacity by utilizing the new uninstalled chilled water coils that would be used in AHU 2 and 3. The plan included using the existing inline return air fans as supply fans to force air across the temporary chilled water coils. It seemed like a solid (and brilliant) plan but did it work???

They began with AHU 1 – ED South. The crew came in early one morning and performed a standard BION stealth-like maneuver of doing a quick shutdown to add tees and valves in the existing chilled water lines. This gave them a connection point to run temporary hoses to the temporary chilled water coil. The chilled water coil was placed into the newly crafted plenum box. The existing to remain return air fan was repurposed to a supply air fan which forced the air across the coil and into the (2) new 30” temporary spiral ducts creating a supply that bypassed the AHU. They also installed temporary return air ductwork for the return air bypass. At this point the temporary solutions were running wide open with no controls. The crew let it run for a full 24 hours to test it out prior to disabling AHU 1. Inova’s engineering lead told Determan that the temporary solution was working and that there were zero calls from the Emergency Department about lack of cooling! SUCCESS- THE PLAN WORKED!

As is often the case, there were a few hold ups. The controls contractor was one and a bad pulley on the supply air fan that sounded like a “brick in a dryer”, as Chris Lane, BION’s Project Manager put it. Thank you to Tony Graham and Charles Palmer for the assistance with the pulley. Once these hold ups were corrected and AHU-1 was refurbished, the crew got it back up and running on its own. The temporary cooling components were then relocated to begin the work on AHU 2 and AHU 3.

The work for AHU 2 and AHU 3 had a few more complications. Though these units were smaller, they were in what was described as a “tin can sized room” with separate risers for each unit. Both units were at full capacity for cooling and there were no isolation valves on the 5” chilled water mains. This required that the team “borrow” chilled water from the mains by means of a couple 3” wet taps. But that’s not all folks, the return ductwork was in the way of pulling the coils which required that 8’ of return duct be removed and re-routed for both units. #ComplicationsAreUs! Once the (2) temporary cooling solutions were in place for AHU 2, the already small room was made smaller by the large 30” temporary ductwork all of the place. With the temporary cooling in place, they were finally able to refurbish the unit. As soon as that work was done they moved on to AHU 3 and did the same.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED:

As if all of the above wasn’t incredible enough, all of this work was done in 3 weeks time! As always, we are continually amazed, impressed, and grateful for the efforts of the BION staff.

Contributors for this story were:

Don Ripley

Chris Lane

Dave Determan, who said of our crews “they kicked ass, just like any ole’ Wednesday”.

Thank you to the following BION staff that made this project a success:

James Burdette

Jeff Compton

Henry deLeon

Dave Determan

Geo Flores

DJ Gaillard

Tony Graham

Shannon Hall

Chris Lane

Eric Leese

Bobbie Miller

Charles Palmer

Tyler Paul

Jake Rinker

Don Ripley

Joel Rivera

Paul Rooney

Patrick Runyon

Nathan Ryan

Russell Ryan

Raul Serrano

Daryl Veney

Barney, the Purple Air Handler?

What’s the story with the purple AHU? Well, back in 1992 Fitzgerald and his crews installed (5) very unique custom air handlers. The mechanical engineer was a company called RMF. In RMF’s specification they listed that the units were to be a custom color as selected by the owner. The color choices were given to Inova and the CEO at the time chose a color called Safety Purple. It’s easy to see why for many years these units have been called “Barney”. Fitz told me that they even created arms, legs and a tail out of corrugated piping to make one of the AHUs look more like the dinosaur it was named after. Can you imagine! As of today, only one "Barney" remains and it’s the AHU 1 serving ED South that we just refurbished.

Safety First with Keith Materne

Heat-Related Illnesses

Summer is here, and you don’t have to be working out in the sun to suffer a heat-related illness. Dehydration and heat related illnesses can occur at indoor work sites. One way to avoid heat issues is to drink water throughout your work shift.

KNOW THE SIGNS:

Heat Cramps (least serious) - Painful muscle spasms

Heat Exhaustion – Clammy skin, nausea, weakness, headache

Heat Stroke (most serious) – High temperature, hot skin, shallow breathing. FOR HEAT STROKE IMMEDIATELY CALL 911 FOR MEDICAL HELP

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, tell your supervisor right away.

Keith

EMR UPDATE:

THANK YOU, each and every one of you for working safely. I’m sure that you work safely for your own wellbeing and I appreciate that! However, your day-to-day safe working habits also help BION.

Each year we get a rating called an EMR (experience modification rate). Basically, it is a rating that compares our on the job injury costs with other companies in our same line of work in our state. If the EMR is high, we are charged more for Workman’s Compensation Insurance. If it’s low, we get a discount.

We just received word that our EMR is at a 3 year low for BION.

Thank you! Your everyday efforts affect everything we do at BION!!

Bobby Lee's Rants and Raves

Welcome!

Well, the dog days of summer are here and it’s been miserably hot and humid over the last several weeks. The warehouse keeps bottled water on hand for our employees so don’t hesitate to contact me to arrange a delivery to your jobsite.

Also, make sure to keep at least a 2 week supply of PPE supplies (masks, hand sanitizer, cut level 4 gloves, safety glasses, etc. etc.) in a secure, centralized location on your jobsite and make sure every BION employee knows where to get what they need. For those that have rooftop work, I still have a few 10’ x 10’ canopies available for you to protect yourself from the elements. All you have to do is call me if you need any PPE or canopies.

Let’s move forward a little bit and talk about BION’s Birthday party scheduled for Wednesday August 24^th 2022. As always, fire extinguishers will need to be gathered from all locations and brought to the BION shelter tent that will be located in the exact same spot as last year. Take the time now to familiarize yourself with all the fire extinguisher locations on your jobsites, vehicles, gang boxes, sea crates, wherever they may be. This way when it’s time to gather them up to bring to the birthday party, we get all of them and none are forgotten or left behind. Several years ago, we would service over 100 fire extinguishers, but the last 2 years we have serviced less than 80 so there are some being missed and left behind.

Everybody look at their First Aid Kit now, organize and inventory the supplies and send me a list of what is needed to make your First Aid Kit complete again. I will have the more common First Aid supplies available at the birthday party but let’s try to replenish your kits ahead of time.

On a final note – in the next 2 weeks, lets get all the scrap copper, brass, and coils off the jobsites and back to the shop. Thank you for your assistance!

Bobby Lee

HR In Your Corner

Summer is in full swing. With many employees planning summer trips, it's a good time to review our PTO policy.

Requesting time off is a two step process:

First - obtain your supervisor's approval

Second - contact Shannan Burke in HR to have your time added to the BION calendar

Getting your time on the calendar is an important and sometimes overlooked step. BION field leaders depend on that information to plan for staffing needs. Your time off could also be mistaken as "unapproved" if it is not listed on the calendar.

You are not required to have available PTO before requesting time off and may request time off without pay if PTO is unavailable. However, if you have available PTO, you must use enough of your balance to bring your total weekly hours to 35 hours. You, of course, have the option to bring yourself to a full 40 hours if PTO is available.

HAPPY VACATION!

Employee Happenings

Tyler Geiger

Graduated Plumbing Apprenticeship!

Congratulations to TYLER GEIGER for completing (4) years of Plumbing Apprenticeship School! Next up is his Plumbing Journeyman's license!

GOOD JOB, TYLER!!

Congratulations to the Newlyweds

Christian and Leigha recently tied the knot on the anniversary of their first date, July 1st.

We couldn't be happier for Christian, Leigha, Reagan and Mason!

Golf Tournament

Joe

Justin, Joe, Elijah, and Danny

Danny

Compared to many other countries, we are very fortunate in America to have access to healthcare. Many others are not so fortunate, Haiti being one such country. For the past 10 years, BION has supported a charity fundraiser that raises money to build hospitals and provide hospital equipment for Haiti. The funds are raised through an annual golf tournament put on by architectural firm, Wilmot Sanz, that we often work with. Thank you, Joe, Justin, Danny and Elijah for supporting this fundraiser!