Bernhard, LCMC Health Announce Landmark Energy Arrangement

Bernhard and LCMC Health have announced a 15-year agreement to provide Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) solutions at six of LCMC Health’s facilities. The EaaS arrangement, the largest of its kind in U.S. healthcare history, transfers the risk of utility operations and maintenance of LCMC Health’s chilled water system to Bernhard and allows for state-of-the-art infrastructure upgrades.

“This agreement allows us to improve and strengthen our facilities, better serve the needs of our community, and focus on our healthcare mission,” said Greg Feirn, LCMC Health CEO. “Bernhard’s technical, design, and financial experience in projects across the country proves they understand the stakes to provide not only sustainable, but reliable energy services for healthcare facilities.”

In the first two years of the partnership, Bernhard will deliver improvements to LCMC Health’s infrastructure that will create efficiencies and improvements in each facility’s operations, and provide utility cost savings once the improvements are completed. Cumulatively, the improvements are expected to yield a 26% reduction in LCMC Health’s enterprise carbon footprint.

“LCMC Health and Bernhard share in the belief that environmental responsibility should not just be an added benefit, but it should be our responsibility to ensure every decision we’ve made in the agreement will protect the natural environment of our shared communities,” said Ed Tinsley, Bernhard CEO. “The carbon footprint we are reducing is equivalent to more than 140,000 cars taken off Louisiana roads.”

With the agreement, LCMC Health joins a group of health systems, including Ochsner Health, Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, East Alabama Medical Center, The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and Midland Health in Texas, each of which has executed similar agreements with Bernhard.

The LCMC Health transaction further represents an important milestone in Bernhard’s exclusive agreement with HealthTrust and ProStar Energy. As one of the nation’s leading performance improvement organizations, HealthTrust offers procurement and supply-chain services to more than 1,500 U.S. hospitals and health systems, including LCMC Health.

“Our work with HealthTrust members across the United States illustrates how we can marry our proactive management, technology, and experience to offer efficient and reliable services time after time,” said Tinsley. “By leveraging the experience and expertise Bernhard provides, this first-of-its-kind transaction allows LCMC Health to focus more exclusively on its core objective of providing the best possible patient care at the most affordable cost.”