Prevent, America’s leading Health Care Life Safety Services Provider

PREVENT Airborne Infections by Regular Maintenance of Air Ducts

Proper Air Duct Cleaning PREVENTs Mass HAI’s

Studies have shown that microbial infected particles can remain in an unfiltered airspace for a considerable amount of time after the initial air suspension. HAI’s are defined by the CDC as infections “for which there is no evidence that the infection was present or incubating at the time of hospital admission.” HAIs are typically acquired 3 different ways:

Direct Contact between patient and medical staff or visitors.
Droplet infection through coughing, sneezing, or sharing food.
Airborne Transmission of microbial infected aerosol particles.

One of the easiest and surest ways to minimize the possibility of HAIs caused by stagnant air flow is to increase the capacity of your HVAC system to filter and move more air throughout your facility. In addition to proper filtration of air, it is also important to have your HVAC system set up to allow for the flow of air from clean to less clean areas of your facility. If your facility is somewhat vintage, the importance of regular and professional cleaning of your HVAC system becomes much more critical in ensuring the health of patients and hospital staff. A regular schedule of vent and air duct cleaning is key to the proper functioning of all ventilation systems whether in the OR, Patient Rooms, or Waiting Areas.

Firestopping: 5 Common Mistakes

Mission Critical – Why firestopping

Firestopping is a crucial part of any life safety system. The main purpose of firestopping is to fill annulus or gaps between penetrating conduit and a fire barrier. By using the firestop to cover the voids, it prevents poisonous smoke and gas from penetrating from one room to the next, thus isolating the fire and smoke to a confined area. By isolating the fire and smoke, not only will you most importantly save lives, but you will also prevent the spread of smoke. By isolating the fire and smoke through firestopping, you will not only prevent wide spread damage often caused by smoke, but you will add time to the evacuation procedure, which saves lives!

5 Common Firestopping Mistakes

Avoid these common mistakes when applying firestop materials to ensure your facility’s safe operation.

Mixing Materials and Systems. Firestopping has many techniques that must be followed, as well as regulations required for installation. A flaw that commonly seems to appear with unprofessional installers is that they tend to mix firestopping material using different brand of firestopping. This is a major “No-No” and will void the fire rating of the material.
Inadequate labeling of firestop work. Another common mistake by inexperienced installers is that they don’t label the firestop to indicate system and materials. By labeling the firestop, it provides a future technician the necessary information should the firestop process need to be reapplied or expanded.
Misuse of New technologies or systems. Often new products are not installed correctly by untrained personnel. For example often cable protection systems (i.e. EZ Paths.) are overfilled beyond the recommended 2/3rds capacity. Another example is using firestop muffins that are designed to protrude from a hole. Instead they are tucked-in with space surrounding the muffins, rendering them ineffective for trapping smoke and fire.
. Often instead of using approved firestop material, unprofessional technicians use everything from core cutouts, mortar and concrete, expandable combustible foam and a variety of other unrated materials. None of these materials will meet the fire rating standards and expose the hospital or facility to significant damage.
Incorrect Bonding. Another common mistake is to bond firestop to combustible material, such as plastic bushing as opposed to bonding to a fire wall or fire barrier.

These are just a few of the many common mistakes made by inexperienced and unprofessional installers of firestop. This is why it is so crucial that the installer be thorough, regularly-trained and experienced. When it comes to Life/Fire Safety Services there is no margin for error!

Keep Your Fire Dampers Up to Code

Fire dampers are a life safety issue. They keep smoke and flames from spreading throughout a building, saving lives and preventing unnecessary injury, in case of a fire.

Codes and Regulations

The Joint Commission, the regulatory agency that accredits hospitals, requires that in-patient hospitals inspect their dampers every six (6) years. For non-inpatient care buildings, such as medical office buildings and out-patient surgery centers, the requirement is every four (4) years. Anything newly installed such as a new wing or a renovation must be inspected within 12 months.

Most facility staffs are busy enough, keeping their fire dampers inspected and up to code often falls on the back burner. That’s where an outside services group can be helpful and save labor and repetitive work. We can help you make sure your dampers are up to code and working correctly.

Inspection Process

The first step is to physically inspect your dampers. The most conscientious contractors use specialized portable infection control units. At Prevent our containment unit called The Solution gives us ceiling access and ensures that dirt and debris stay contained within the unit — and all outer air flow is filtered, through the built-in HEPA unit. (See more on “The Solution”)

After the Inspection – Addressing Repairs

We recommend, and the Joint Commission requires that any deficiencies found in the fire dampers inspection process require immediate repairs. If we find a deficiency or something not working correctly, we’ll address it immediately. Our team can mobilize in less than 24 hours, meeting your needs whether it’s at night or on the weekend.

Prevent is one of the few inspection companies licensed to do fire damper repairs. We can typically do any type of repair, from routine fixes such as replacing actuators, cutting access to more complex corrections.

Compliance Reporting

To keep you in compliance with key regulatory agencies such as The Joint Commission or CMS, detailed reporting should be provided. Prevent provides detailed daily logs of all inspections indicating any problem areas or repair needs. In addition, we provide an annotated copy of your floor plans indicating damper locations inspected. Both are helpful documents to support your Joint Commission review process.

Take Action

Call us to discuss and help you address your fire and smoke damper issues.

Improve Safety and Cost Savings With Photoluminescence

Most of us can recall the photographs of people streaming out of the World Trade Center after the planes hit in 2001. What most people don’t know, however, is that what helped many people survive was photoluminescent egress systems (PLES). This glow-in-the-dark technology marks the exits of buildings with the goal of guiding people out safely in case of an emergency.

Photoluminescent exit systems work. When interviewed, 9/11 survivors listed PLES markings among the Top 3 things that helped them get out of the building and live to talk about it.

When the power gets knocked out and no emergency generator is available, photoluminescence is invaluable. Now, it’s a requirement for all buildings as part of the 2009 International Building Code (IBC) for all buildings taller than 75 feet.

Besides the obvious safety benefit, photoluminescence is a great “green” product because it doesn’t require any power source and uses natural sunlight to charge. It can be used at any location, requires no wires or electricity and brings a cost savings because you don’t have to supply power during the year. Just as an example, if your facility uses 500 exit signs, you can save $3000 a year by using photoluminescent exit signs instead of LED signs, not to mention, no bulb changing or periodic testing.

Whether you are undertaking new construction, doing a retrofit or building an addition, we can help you determine your needs for this energy-efficient product that is crucial for safety.

We’ll come look at your facility, discuss requirements about what does and doesn’t need to be marked and give you an estimate to ensure that a building’s occupants have all possible advantages for exiting a building safely and quickly in case of a life-threatening emergency.

photo luminescent egress systems (PLES). This glow-in-the-dark technology marks the exits of buildings with the goal of guiding people out safely in case of an emergency.

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PREVENT Airborne Infections by Regular Maintenance of Air Ducts

Firestopping: 5 Common Mistakes

Keep Your Fire Dampers Up to Code

Improve Safety and Cost Savings With Photoluminescence

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