New EH&E Inc. Program Improves Fire & Life Safety Compliance During & After Construction at Hospitals
NEEDHAM, Mass., Nov. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- EH&E, a leading provider of risk management, environmental and engineering consulting services, has introduced a new inspection service that assists hospitals to improve firestopping and life safety compliance during and after construction projects.
Construction, renovation, maintenance, and tele-data upgrades are constant at hospitals. The complexity and pace of these projects can lead to unexpected compromises in firewall barriers — creating both compliance problems and safety issues.
EH&E's new Firestopping and Life Safety Management program, designed in conjunction with Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), shows hospitals how to cost effectively resolve construction-related compliance deficiencies and set the foundation for maintaining life safety and firewall barrier systems throughout the life of their buildings.
By addressing the root causes of firewall breaches and enabling the proactive identification and resolution of fire and life safety deficiencies during construction, the hospital starts with a safe and compliant building at the time of occupation. The hospital saves costs because rather than inheriting fire safety deficiencies from construction, the responsibility for repairs is placed with the contractor. In addition, the program's "continuous compliance" focus ensures that proper procedures will be followed during ongoing maintenance and future renovations. Field inspectors utilize mobile devices to note conditions and provide photographic documentation that is instantly uploaded to a secure website for real-time notification to the contractors followed by auto-tracking of resolution, acceptance and record keeping.
At BWH, program results included greater than 96% compliance with The Joint Commission, and an estimated savings of more than $1 per square foot of floor area through the repair of firewall deficiencies prior to occupancy.
This summer, the program won the 2014 IFMA Boston Excellence Award for Best Practices in Sustainability, honored for setting "a new benchmark" and establishing "a model of best practices."
For more information on EH&E's new Firestopping and Life Safety Management program, or to download a case study detailing the BWH project, visit http://www.eheinc.com/firesafety_hospital_wp.htm.
About EH&E
EH&E (http://www.eheinc.com) has provided an extensive range of risk management, environmental and engineering consulting services for over 25 years. Our team consists of more than 60 experts with an outstanding record of providing business-focused solutions for issues that affect the built environment. Our focus on "evidence-based decision making" and advanced capabilities in analytics and technology innovation enables clientsto achieve and quantify optimal performance from their people and assets. EH&E is the partner of choice for reduced organizational risk, improved business outcomes, faster time to problem resolution and greater stakeholder satisfaction.
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SOURCE EH&E
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