Not AI for AI’s Sake

Aug 25

5 min read

In healthcare systems across the country, admin teams and clinical teams are using AI to reduce time spent on repetitive tasks while allowing more time to focus on patient outcomes. But we don’t hear a lot about healthcare facilities teams using AI to similar ends. Current iQ is here to change that.

Healthcare leaders grappling with aligning finance with deferred maintenance

With its LIFT iQ, the team of energy engineers and operations experts provide a pathway to productive AI adoption for healthcare facilities teams who want to reduce risk, improve resilience and get their upgrade projects approved this budget cycle.

LIFT iQ—short for long-term infrastructure transformation—evaluates the live performance of six healthcare infrastructure pillars and analyzes how their operations are impacted by one another. This leads to a full status report that is not only developed with AI but accessed through an interactive AI portal giving users a big-picture understanding of current conditions and the freedom to test where small changes can make the biggest difference. The result is more confident decision-making, reduced risk, fewer emergency outages and greater capital control.

Just like admin teams and clinical care teams, healthcare facilities teams don’t need AI systems for AI’s sake. They need to deliver safer, more reliable facilities to patients faster and with greater consistency. LIFT iQ is the technology-enabled tool to get them there.

Go deeper on LIFT iQ

LIFT iQ focuses on six operational specialties: energy, building systems, capital, compliance, real estate, and data. In a typical health system, each of these domains are looked at individually, by independent directors and rolled into a single row on a 6,000 cell spreadsheet. Facilities teams know these specialties are interconnected, but without LIFT iQ, it’s difficult to explain how.

Through a single site visit and a few live data feeds, Current iQ’s healthcare infrastructure specialists evaluate the current status of these six systems on their own and, crucially, the ways in which their performance impacts each other. From this holistic view the LIFT iQ almost builds itself. Let’s dig into each of the domains.

Energy

From just 12-24 months of utility data, LIFT iQ drills in on critical energy levers like the value of on-site generation and the risk associated with peak demand charges. So much more than a moment-in-time report, LIFT iQ delivers this insight through an AI platform with a live connection to the utility bills so facilities teams can run further analysis, conduct scenario planning or answer executive questions quickly.

Building systems

With a keen understanding of the thermal systems that keep hospitals comfortable, LIFT iQ digs into central plants, heating and cooling systems and the controls strategies that govern them. This activates monitoring-based commissioning and introduces AI into building management systems and processes. The data that is collected here lays the foundation for automated fault detection and diagnostics, AI building ops help desks and more.

Capital

Taking into account all published capital plans alongside evaluations of system performance across the other five infrastructure categories, LIFT iQ turns an unrecognized renewal backlog into a sequenced, aligned and easily fundable capital register. The interactive AI portion of this part of the report helps facilities teams get their projects approved quickly.

Compliance

Compliance often feels like a moving target, which is a perfect use case for AI-enabled technology tools like LIFT iQ. The interactive platform ensures current and future compliance with all local, state and federal laws plus an audit-ready compliance calendar to take the guesswork out of compliance.

Real Estate

Typically way off on its own island, healthcare real estate teams and their data can easily be out of the loop. LIFT iQ brings lease and space administration together with sales and acquisition plans so all other infrastructure pillars can use this information to prioritize and scope their upgrade or replacement plans. No more pitching an HVAC upgrade to a building that is nearing the close date on a sale.

Data

No matter the end goal, everyone will tell you that good data is the starting point. This is especially true for healthcare facilities teams that hope to incorporate AI into their workflows. LIFT iQ delivers a detailed data-level audit of major operational systems including CMMS, BMS, EMS and any other acronyms your team can think of. This is the first step to AI readiness.

An Illustrative Example

Since the LIFT iQ contains highly proprietary information specific to each health system, it’s difficult to share an example output. So Current iQ used Claude to develop an aggregated view and create an illustrative example. Excerpts from the illustrative report are included in this article. A PDF version is available for download after providing some company information in this brief form. And a live walk-through of the AI tool can be presented in a 30-minute scoping call.

From the executive summary:

VitalHaven Health Systems scores 61 of 100 on the LIFT iQ Index. This indicates the system is “Developing” which falls just below its peer cohort median of 66. The facilities team runs an aging, high-acuity plant with real skill. The primary question of this report is: how ready is the institution to make and fund the right infrastructure decisions over the next three years?

Summary of VitalHaven’s LIFT iQ key findings:

Finding 1: The plant is bifurcating and the capital plan must account for this split.

Finding 2: Operating cost is leaking in ways this assessment is the first to decompose.

Finding 3: Continuity, not efficiency, is the biggest exposure to care and margin.

Finding 4: The affiliated footprint is unread.

Abbreviated roadmap provided:

Sequenced by consequence and payback and tagged to the risk it retires or the opportunity it captures. Full report includes breakouts for first 90 days, within 12 months and 1-3 years from now.

*Initiative*	*Why now*	*Value*
Utility bill & tariff correction	Pure recovery, immediate	+~$74K/yr
Rogue-VAV static-pressure reset	Largest single control fix	+~$68K/yr
Optimal-start / scheduling program	Fast, self-funding, touches OR readiness	+~$52K/yr
Reconcile renewal register to master plan	Stops mis-directed capital; costs nothing	~$14–19M avoided
Stand up facilities ↔ capital ↔ biomed forum	Closes the decision seam	Governance
Abstract MOB leases & critical-date tracking	Two leases expire in-window	Retires R6

Getting Started with LIFT iQ

Healthcare facilities teams are dealing with a lot of stressors these days. Their jobs have always required wearing multiple hats and juggling an impossible number of emergencies. It probably feels like falling behind on AI implementation or moving too quickly on AI adoption are new burdens to absorb across an already over-worked team. At Current iQ, we see the rock and hard place you’re stuck between and we believe LIFT iQ offers a reasonable path forward. The goal is to take burdens off your plate, not continue to overcomplicate your daily work.

LIFT iQ is delivered through one 30-minute scoping call, a single site visit and expert analysis across six infrastructure systems. The result is countless actionable insights delivered in digestible chunks through an AI platform that enlivens the report and makes it useful across so many conversations and decision-making meetings. Built from Current iQ’s decades of domain knowledge, LIFT iQ is easy to procure and endlessly helpful to healthcare facilities leaders. At just $30,000 with delivery in 6-10 weeks, it’s also a great deal.