Renovated New Orleans Care Facility Reopens, Reuniting Residents and Staff
September 17 2007 - 10:21AM
PR Newswire (US)
Trane helps provide new quarters for St. Margaret's Daughters' Home
NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Residents and staff
of St. Margaret's Daughters' Home in New Orleans will be reunited
in a temporary facility this month, two years after they evacuated
in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The 116-bed eldercare facility
was destroyed when Katrina's storm surge overwhelmed the levees in
the city's Ninth Ward. While everyone at St. Margaret's was
evacuated safely before the storm, federal disaster officials
deemed the building unsalvageable after it was flooded and filled
with four-to-six feet of standing water for two weeks. St.
Margaret's officials immediately began the search for a new home -
a process that culminates at 10 a.m. (CDT) today with a
ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new temporary facility at 3419 St.
Claude Ave. The building, which formerly housed the Bywater
Hospital, required extensive renovations to support an eldercare
facility. The conversion was completed with grant money from the
Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) and a pivotal team
of reconstruction partners, including Trane. Since 1931, St.
Margaret's, a nonprofit facility, has offered affordable, quality
nursing care delivered with compassion and personal attention.
Before Katrina struck, St. Margaret's provided residents with the
conveniences of home, like a sunroom overlooking a lush garden and
family rooms complete with big-screen TVs. "Residents and staff are
a tight-knit group," said Larry Stansberry, chief executive officer
of St. Margaret's. "Those relationships survived the storm. It
became my No. 1 priority to get everyone under one roof again after
this horrible tragedy. I consider the residents and staff of St.
Margaret's to be like family and I wanted to bring them back home."
Once officials decided upon the former hospital building, they
quickly began renovations. Partway through the reconstruction
process, workers discovered a sorely outdated heating, ventilating
and air conditioning (HVAC) system that would not meet building
requirements. HVAC is the heart of the mechanical system in a
healthcare facility and is vital to providing residents and staff
with a clean, comfortable environment. After learning the HVAC
system needed replacing, Stansberry approached Trane with the
problem. Trane Rental Services quickly drew up a lease agreement
for the system that would meet the facility's performance
requirements until the permanent facility is complete. "If not for
Trane's generous offer to lease us an HVAC system, I would have
needed to start at square one again to find another suitable
temporary location," said Stansberry. "Thanks to Trane's help, the
St. Margaret's family will be back together once again." Trane
Rental Services provides short- and long-term temporary cooling or
heating solutions for emergency and planned situations. Trane's
modern fleet of HVAC systems are prepped and ready to ship at a
moment's notice to manufacturing facilities, hospitals,
universities, ice rinks, on-location television shows, tournaments
and special engagements. Trane has worked with health care
facilities for more than 40 years, providing a range of systems,
services and solutions to optimize healing environments, improve
patient outcomes, increase comfort levels of staff and patients,
and optimize facility investment. Nearly half of all healthcare
facilities in North America rely on Trane systems for their comfort
needs. Trane, the air conditioning systems and services business of
American Standard Companies (NYSE:ASD), is a leading global
provider of indoor comfort systems and comprehensive facility
solutions. Its offerings include energy efficient heating,
ventilating and air conditioning systems, service and parts
support, advanced building controls and financing solutions. Each
Trane system is designed to meet the specific needs of customers
who want heating, cooling, dehumidifying and air cleaning systems
for residential, commercial, institutional and industrial
applications. In 2006, Trane contributed $6.8 billion to American
Standard's total sales of $11.2 billion. For more information,
visit the Trane Web site at http://www.trane.com/. DATASOURCE:
American Standard Companies Inc. CONTACT: Perri Richman,
+1-732-980-6386, Web site: http://www.americanstandard.com/
http://www.trane.com/
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