Meet Masoud Goudarzi, one of our many hidden heroes keeping our health service operating with precision.
As a reliability engineer at Sunshine Hospital, he helps make sure our systems, equipment and processes operate efficiently and sustainably.
But he also has a big role to play in helping us increase the lifespan of our equipment, leading to significant savings and helping us achieve our goal of net zero emissions of CO2 (carbon dioxide). 
“Every day presents a new challenge,” Masoud said.
“My main goal is to improve the reliability of our equipment, keeping everything running smoothly behind the scenes and making sure we are using the most efficient and effective ways to heat, cool and power our hospitals.”
But Masoud’s role is more than just maintaining equipment and ensuring our equipment has minimal downtime or failures.
“I'm also responsible for ensuring that our equipment operates at optimal levels and meets the needs of the organisation, as well as increasing equipment efficiency, which increases the lifespan of our assets and leads to cost savings and risk mitigation.”
This involves precision and predictive maintenance (when and how equipment is serviced); condition monitoring and data-driven decision making to prevent unplanned failures and ensure our health service can operate 24/7.
Together with his colleagues in the engineering, facilities and sustainability teams, he also makes a significant contribution to finding new and innovative ways to make our health service more sustainable.
By making sure our hospital services are powered efficiently, we can reduce our energy consumption, maintenance costs and increase the lifespan of large pieces of equipment.
With a background in mechanical engineering, computational fluid dynamics, structural mechanics and condition monitoring, Masoud brings a wealth of experience spanning infrastructure, oil, gas, and refinery sectors to Western Health.
His journey from research engineer to lecturer, and now guardian of our critical equipment, showcases a commitment to continuous learning and improvement.
Masoud is proud of the work he has achieved in his role, reeling off many examples of how he has worked with the Sunshine Hospital engineering and facilities teams to deliver improvements.
“For instance, last year we optimised our belt driven AHU (Air Handling Units), which resulted in a 8-10 per cent reduction in electricity consumption," he said.
"It might not sound like much, but when you consider the scale of our operations, that's a substantial energy saving that directly contributes to our net zero emissions target, as well as reducing the risk of service downtime significantly."
A great example of his work is when he introduced a smart feedback system to our gas booster system, cutting energy consumption by an astounding 80 per cent.
"It's not just about energy savings," he said. "It's about creating more reliable systems that ensure we can provide uninterrupted care to our patients."
Masoud’s work spans almost every corner of Sunshine Hospital.
From advocating for high-efficiency electric motors to meticulously hunting down and fixing air leaks in our compressor systems, Masoud is a natural problem solver.
While his role may often go unnoticed by patients and visitors, his impact is felt in every corner of our health service—from the consistent room temperatures that keep patients comfortable to the reliable power supply that keeps life-saving equipment running.
Masoud is one of our sustainability champions, who is constantly searching for new ways to help us achieve our goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2045.
