Life & Safety Plans
Healthcare / Healthcare Facility Manager / Facilities Console
Life & Safety Plans
In the United State, the Joint Commission requires that medical facilities maintain life safety floor plans that identify life safety features defined by the NFPA Life Safety Code. Because many health care facilities have occupants that are mostly incapable of self-preservation because of age or illness, the buildings require several types of fire safety features which are identified on the drawings.
Fire safety features include the following:
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Locations that are fully sprinklered
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Locations of all fire-rated barriers
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Locations of all smoke-rated barriers
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Locations of designated smoke compartments. In Archibus, this can be tracked with zones.
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Locations of chutes and shafts (vertical penetrations)
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Locations of bio-medical waste. In Archibus, this can be tracked by assigning the appropriate Room Type to waste storage rooms.
In order to maintain life & safety plan or prepare for fire hazards, facility managers need to maintain a life & safety plan with the above information. They must locate fire assets (fire walls and doors), check their fire rating, ensure that patient areas have sprinkler systems, and so on..
Fire Doors and Walls
See the "Fire Assets" discussion in Healthcare Equipment Examples for information on working with fire door and fire walls.
Review Fire-Protected Areas
Sprinkler systems are a vital part of the life-safety plan. The Fire Protection highlight indicates rooms according to the value of the Fire Type Required field of the Rooms table. Highlight the floor plan by Healthcare Occupancy Type and add a Fire Protection border highlight to check that all Ambulatory and Health Care rooms (red and light blue rooms) have a blue highlight to indicate that they have a sprinkler system.
