Protecting The Healthcare Facility

A multi-phase expansion at Saint Luke’s Hospital, Kansas City, MO, includes an extensive fi restop solution to ensure fi re-barrier integrity.

Firestop barrier management ensures compliance and reduces liability.

A$330-million expansion project at Saint Luke’s Hospital, Kansas City, MO, uses a fully automated, computer-based, barriermanagement program to ensure fi re-barrier compliance as required by regulatory and accreditation agencies. The system also reduces future liability and costs by controlling the process of managing the fi re barriers for the life of the facility. “Facility managers should strive to have a fully compliant building not just because it’s required by regulatory and accreditation agencies, but because we are all in the business to provide a safe environment for our patients, visitors, and staff,” said Renee Robison Jacobs, a certifi ed healthcare facility manager, certifi ed healthcare constructor, and vice president of facilities and construction for Saint Luke’s Health System.

Specifying a system

Jacobs worked with MTS Contracting, a local Kansas City FM-4991 firestop specialty contractor. Criteria for the hospital facility’s system required that each penetration have a label that could be read by a barcode scanner that would display the installer, date of installation, what system was used, and any other pertinent information for that installation. Jacobs also wanted the system to track that location back to a building plan that could pinpoint the exact penetration location. In addition, she wanted photo documentation of the installation linked back to previous records without having to manually enter data and link pictures with database files.

“I wanted a completely electronic system so that all of the information talked together without a fulltime person manually connecting the dots and putting all of the data together to document one penetration or one barrier,” said Jacobs.

The eBMP electronic barrier-management program from Specifi ed Technologies Inc. (STI), Somerville, NJ, met the criteria. “The eBMP seemed to be very comprehensive. It captured all the pertinent data, and we have had the ability to roll out an above-ceiling permit program through the eBMP system. We can document other regulatory and compliance requirements and track those in the system as well,” said Jacobs. The stand-alone system is maintained by MTS Contracting, although it requires little upkeep, Jacobs added.

Entering the digital age

“The eBMP forces standardization, accountability, and quality control,” explained Ray Bruno, vice president, sales and marketing at STI. “It

allows management to digitally manage the process of creating, sealing, mapping, and subsequently accessing all penetrations in their facility. In addition, it also provides the management tools for inspection, repair, and routing maintenance of fi re doors, extinguishers, and dampers.”

The key is digital management. Prior to the development of a webbased system, tracking non-compliant openings, documenting the work, and ensuring completion and compliance was a burdensome process. “Paper records are time-consuming to search and diffi cult to keep current and accurate,” said Bruno. “What the eBMP does is bring fi restop-barrier management from the outdated, inaccurate, and costly analog environment into the effi cient world of digital management.”

Keeping fi re barriers compliant is especially challenging in healthcare facilities where technology-driven change creates a nearly endless supply of new and re-accessed openings. Even if a facility is constructed to meet fi restop codes, subsequent remodeling, updating, technology upgrades, or installation of life-safety and other equipment can damage the integrity of fi re barriers.

The eBMP system provides pre-selected and approved UL systems and issues the permit. Its advanced facility-mapping and bar-coding system quickly and easily identifi es and locates penetrations. Using industrialstrength, mobile data-collection tools, the system provides real-time management of critical information such as reporting and documentation, e.g, changes, assessments, and inspections. It tracks the status of fi restop installations and generates status reports.

STI’s eBMP electronic barrier-management program is a stand-alone monitoring system.

“The goal is to manage things proactively to alleviate the need to spend money every year on fi xing fi restopping issues,” said Jacobs. “Capital dollars can then be allocated for improving patient care or for infrastructure repairs and improvements so that we can provide value and better service to our patients.”

Making it a priority

“The thing that’s been the biggest change is making fi restopping a priority,” Jacobs said. “We are taking a very strong stance that we are not going to continue to throw money on an annual basis at something that should be done right from the beginning. Having a certifi ed and qualifi ed specialty fi restopping contractor do the work has made a tremendous difference. Contractors and subcontractors don’t have to deal with fi restopping anymore. The contractors working on site have absolutely embraced the system and are now very appreciative of what we have done.”

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