Thursday, January 1, 2009

Solving Hospital Building Department and Fire Department Problems

Many hospitals have building department and fire department problems. These problems include: open building department applications, violations (involving most commonly boilers, elevators, and facades), and in some cases only a temporary Certificate of Occupancy (C. of O.) or no C. of O. at all.

There a number of reasons that many hospitals have these problems. Chief among the reasons are a changing cast of characters of administrators, architects and contractors, which tend to shift and change over time. Therefore, the extreme amount of paperwork and sign-off procedures required to keep the hospital's building department record up to date, can sometimes fall through the cracks as new administrators, architects and contractors come and go. Another factor is the increased but certainly justified scrutiny that hospitals come under from building departments and fire departments, due to the number and nature of many of its patients, and the additional fire safety regulation and infrastructure required in a hospital. And all of the above items are complicated by the constant need of hospitals to modify and add onto their facilities.

Hospital project management company, Empire Projects. Inc., has developed a methodology to solve the building department and fire department problems faced by hospitals. The methodology begins with a thorough search and documentation of all open applications and violations at the building department, fire department, bureau of electrical control, environmental control board, department of transportation, and other agencies as required. A spreadsheet of violations is developed, listing violation or application numbers, project type and location, and a list of line items indicating action items and responsible parties.

With the above spreadsheet in hand, Empire Projects, Inc. then systematically goes through each violation and open application, and contacts the original filing party that is responsible for the close out. In most cases, the original architect, engineer or contractor can be convinced to fulfill the original obligations for sign-off in their contract. If not --- either the original vendor is unwilling or unable to do so --- then Empire Projects, Inc. will either hire a new vendor or take over the work themselves, in consultation with the hospital.

Once all of the open applications and violations are closed out, Empire Projects, Inc. is able to obtain a final Certificate of Occupancy (C. of O.).

For more information about healthcare project management services, please see: http://empireprojects.com/healthcare-project-management/

For more information about solving hospital building department problems, please contact hospital project management consultants and hospital owner's representatives, Empire Projects, Inc.:

Empire Projects, Inc.
(Project Management Consultants and Owner's Representatives)
1201 Broadway - #803, New York, NY 10001
T: 212-463-0800
info@empireprojects.com
www.empireprojects.com

Additional ways to follow Empire Projects, Inc. include:

Empire Projects, Inc. on Twitter: https://twitter.com/empireprojects
Empire Projects, Inc.on Blogger: http://empireprojects.blogspot.com/
Empire Projects, Inc. on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/empire-projects-inc.
Empire Projects, Inc. on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/empireprojectsusa/