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January 2018 — Health Care Properties Quarterly —

Page 15

www.crej.com

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Healthcare Construction <$1M - $500M +

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UCHealth Eye Center

Saint Joseph Hospital

Poudre Valley Hospital NICU

Lutheran Medical Center

CU Sports Medicine & Performance Center

T

here has been a significant

change in how health care

is managed over the last five

to 10 years. Hospitals have

evolved from handling emer-

gency and inpatient care to a more

mixed-use health care campus,

focused on wellness and outpatient

services in addition to their core

service offerings. Today, patients

might visit a health care campus for

a weekly physical therapy appoint-

ment, an MRI or even to take a pre-

op course designed to instruct future

patients on aftercare requirements.

The focus of the health care campus

has shifted to be a comprehensive

hub that provides a variety of ser-

vices.

As one could imagine, this shift

has changed the way design and

engineering professionals configure

and equip health care campuses.

Fire and life safety design might not

seem as fascinating as engineering a

parking structure, but it’s vital to the

one thing that is always the top pri-

ority in a health care setting – safety.

Up until the last decade, fire and

life safety engineering services with-

in a health care setting were primar-

ily concerned with adhering to vari-

ous federal, state and local codes, as

well as compliance agencies. Now,

fire and life safety engineers also

have to consider the vast health care

campus that provides an assortment

of services, each with its own set of

regulations. Code and compliance

requirements vary for each area of

the campus. It is essential that the

campus is interconnected for patient

and employee ease in maneuvering.

This transition to a mixed-use

health care campus requires fire and

life safety engi-

neers to develop

creative solutions

to address sections

of the facility dif-

ferently based on

whether it is an

outpatient service,

administrative

floor, education

classroom or emer-

gency services.

Each use case

requires different

fire and life safety

solutions.

The role of fire and life safety

engineers is a delicate dance

between maintaining the aesthetic

and utility of a structure, with

modifying the design to safeguard

against potential hazards. In a

mixed-use health care setting, it is

important to develop solutions and

educate the design team without

diminishing the intent and spirit

of the campus. A good fire and life

safety engineer will take a consulta-

tive role to acknowledge and work

within each discipline associated

with a campus.

Fire Protection Architecture

When developing solutions to

address the complex nature of

health care campuses, fire and life

safety engineers combine the fol-

lowing professional disciplines

to effectively manage mixed-use

health projects: fire protection, fire

protection engineering, architec-

ture and politics. Knowing fire and

human behavior provides the nec-

essary foundation for fire and life

safety engineers to compartmen-

talize and suppress. Fire protection

provides a high-level view of what

can be expected during a fire and

how to properly prepare staff with

evacuation tools and fire prevention

programs.

Fire protection engineering mar-

ries science and engineering prin-

ciples to protect people and environ-

ments from the destructive effects

of fire and smoke. In a medical

campus, where some occupants are

mostly incapable of self-preserva-

tion, the planning and coordination

of smoke compartments is vital to

ensuring patient safety. In addition

to designing the appropriate smoke

barriers to limit the size of the com-

partments the supporting fire pro-

tection, mechanical and egress sys-

tems also must be considered.

When smoke control systems are

required, such as in atrium spaces,

the systems are a significant part

of health care facilities’ fire safety

considerations. The systems are

designed to allow the appropriate

time for hospital staff to coordinate

patient evacuation, without risking

the health and safety of patients and

staff. Smoke management is often

one of the more complicated aspects

of fire and life safety engineering,

and even more so when handling a

health campus with varied service

offerings. Coordinating mechanical

and electrical controls is essential to

ensure the systems operate properly

to achieve the life safety goals of the

protected spaces.

Health care campus design, layout,

space planning and construction

requires the consultative role of a

professional fire and life safety engi-

neer to keep with the overall vision

of the project, while addressing

proper safety and regulatory con-

cerns. Working within the planned

architecture and use of the spaces,

the engineer provides guidance and

design of the many interrelated fire

protection and life safety systems

to ensure that the often challenging

code requirement of those systems

are satisfied.

As an example, it is often neces-

sary to separate the different uses

of a space with fire-resistive-rated

construction serving as either fire

or smoke barriers. While building

a wall is not a challenging design

task, coordinating the location of the

required walls while providing open

and inviting access to all of the adja-

cent spaces requires the experience

and creative thinking that a fire and

life safety engineer can provide.

Health care facilities are subject

to the scrutiny of multiple entities,

including local, state, federal and

private accreditation authorities.

These entities rarely, if ever, operate

or enforce the same edition or have

the same interpretation of the appli-

cable codes and standards. The fire

and life safety professional brings

clarity to the code application pro-

cess.

Architecture and eloquence are

mixed arts, whose end is sometimes

beauty and sometimes use. Due to

the nature of the mixed-use health

care campus, it is critical for the fire

and life safety engineers to carry

out the vision of stakeholders while

allowing the environments to oper-

ate safely without an interruption in

care and service.

Fire and life safety – architecture and eloquence

Engineering

Todd Brand

Associate fire

protection engineer,

BCER Engineering

Inc., Arvada