Key Outcomes

The pilot successfully partnered with one healthcare system in western Wisconsin and completed healthy home assessments for eight patients. Assessments included indoor air quality monitoring to inform needed improvements. Six homes were upgraded with a combination of improvements, including air sealing, insulation, ventilation, duct cleaning, HEPA vacuums, and bed protectors. The pilot covered 100% of the project costs which averaged around $7,700 per home.

Two additional healthcare networks were engaged with, however due to the pilot being launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, resources were strained and the priority was on patient care. This limited the ability to source projects and develop financial partnerships to facilitate home upgrades.

The pilot also resulted in six contractors being certified as Healthy Home Evaluators through the Building Performance Institute (BPI). This certification allows contractors to assess environmental health and safety hazards in homes and develop a list of recommendations.

Lessons Learned

• Developing Partnerships: The impact of a global pandemic resulted in healthcare organizations not having capacity to support this pilot. When progress was made with recruitment, it proved most effective to start with the physicians on staff, then gain buy-in from departments concerned with improving the health and care of specific patient populations, before finally reaching the healthcare administration team.
  

• Customer Eligibility: Limiting participation to rural ZIP codes proved to be a significant challenge as there were fewer participating natural gas utilities serving the areas most often supported by larger health care systems.

Recommendations and Next Steps

This pilot will not continue due to the challenges in securing partnerships with healthcare organizations.

Questions?

Contact the Future Focus team at futurefocus@focusonenergy.com