IS THERE A HEALTHCARE HERO IN YOUR LIFE?
(maybe it's you)

GreenSavers, a leading HVAC contractor in Portland and Bend, Oregon, is awarding three outstanding healthcare workers with central air conditioning systems to help them stay cool, sleep better, and come back to work refreshed. It’s a small way to say thank you for their service and sacrifice fighting COVID-19.

This award is intended for patient-facing healthcare workers, such as physicians, nurses, emergency responders, and their supporting staff. These people stand as our best defense to contain and mitigate the COVID-19 epidemic. They’re also the people that face the highest risk of becoming infected themselves.

In addition to considering the service and sacrifice of patient-facing healthcare workers, the Awards Committee will also consider:

• Financial needs: Could the recipient afford to install a central air conditioning system without winning this award?

• Building needs: For example, does the recipient’s home already have central air conditioning?

• Disadvantaged populations: Is the recipient part of a historically disadvantaged population?

• Location: The recipient must live in the GreenSavers service area, which encompasses both Portland and Central Oregon.

Please complete the Healthcare Hero Nomination Form by June 15, 2020 (should take 5 to 15 minutes). The Awards Committee will review applications, interview nominees as needed, and notify winners no later than June 30, 2020. It is OK to nominate yourself.

Three winners will receive free installations of the American Standard Silver 16 Low Profile Air Conditioner. This ENERGY STAR qualified air conditioner quietly and efficiently delivers cool air while accommodating almost any space constraints.

Fully installed by GreenSavers, the American Standard Silver 16 Air Conditioner would normally cost a homeowner $5,500.

But with the help of our our partners, we’re installing these systems at no charge to three outstanding healthcare workers. It’s our way of showing appreciation for the work that matters now more than ever.

This award is made possible by the generous support of our partners, American Standard and Gensco. More about our partners:

For healthcare workers to be at their best during the day, they need to keep cool and sleep well at night. Temperature has a big impact on our ability to sleep, and sleep is essential to work performance.

It’s fascinating to get into the research on how exactly hotter nights interrupt our sleep and how this relates to missed work, mistakes, and accidents the next day. Here’s a sketch.

Nine million sleepless nights a month

Hot temperatures make it harder for the body to shed heat and cool down. This decreases the amount of time that we spend in deep sleep, when the body does the most to rejuvenate and restore itself. For more, check out this article in Psychology Today.

To quantify the impact of temperature on sleep quality, scientists used data from 750,000 sleep surveys conducted by the Centers for Disease Control between 2002-2011 and compared that information to historical nighttime temperature data.

They found that a 1C° deviation from average monthly nighttime temperatures creates an additional 3 nights of disrupted sleep for every 100 people. Extrapolated to the population of the U.S., that’s 9 million additional nights of poor sleep a month, and 110 million additional nights of sleep annually.

As nighttime temperatures peak during the summer months, the magnitude of the effects on sleep disruption increases 3-fold compared to all other seasons.

bad sleep, nothing but problems at work

If you miss a night of sleep, you know how you feel the next day. The research on sleep and work performance is pretty clear.

• Absenteeism: Sleep disturbances and fatigue significantly predicts sickness absence (Rahkonen and colleagues, 2010).

• Decreased productivity: McKibben and colleagues (2010) found sleep disturbances associated with a 3-fold risk of impaired work performance and a 5-fold risk of limited day-to-day function. This could mean an impaired ability to meet time management demands, mental and interpersonal demands, output demands, and physical job demands.

• Accidents and injuries: Trouble sleeping is an important risk factor for accidents and injuries. And in the case of healthcare workers, sleep deprivation could mean adverse implications for patient care (Mansukhani and colleagues, 2012).

If you have a healthcare worker in your life who you see going above and beyond, please nominate them for a free air conditioning system. Let’s do what we can to help them fight the good fight.