Fire safety technologies address distinctive challenges in health care facilities

Image from Honeywell Fire

Hospitals and other health care facilities face unique fire safety challenges and requirements. Unlike most commercial and industrial properties, hospitals need to be fully operational 24/7. This complicates smoke detector maintenance and testing, which must be conducted without disrupting patients and staff. That maintenance, however, is crucial for early detection and to prevent patient evacuations due to smoke or fire. This goes for hospitals as well as other health care facilities, since evacuating facilities with high occupancy loads and patients who may be temporarily or permanently physically impaired poses safety challenges.  

These are significant hurdles to navigate as several areas inside medical facilities present fire risks. For example, MRI scanners can constitute an ignition source, and leakage of cryogenic liquids used in the equipment can displace oxygen from the room. The treatment of patients with upper respiratory diseases also contributes elevated risk because of the increased need for oxygen in emergency rooms and intensive care units (ICUs). In the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, oxygen-rich environments played a role in at least 20 fires at hospitals in various countries that treated COVID-19 patients.

Fire safety starts with prevention

In the face of these challenges, health care facilities managers should heed advice from founding father Benjamin Franklin: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” The proverb has been used repeatedly in medicine to stress the importance of disease prevention and early detection. But did you know Franklin was referring to the importance of fire safety and the need for cities to be better prepared to prevent and react to fires?

The good news is that holistic fire safety solutions are available, focusing on prevention and early detection. These solutions empower facilities managers to take proactive measures and be well prepared for any potential fire incidents. But what separates leading-edge systems from the rest is that they address the biggest pain points around maintenance, testing and communications.

Health care facilities simply cannot afford disruption and must minimize unplanned maintenance. They can’t have technicians interrupting patients and medical staff to test detectors. Finally, they need tools that automate time-consuming tasks like compliance documentation to make their lives easier.

What to look for in a health care fire safety solution

The best solutions offer these features:

• Remote system visibility. A powerful mobile application enables an always-on view of what’s going on at the facility. By providing on-the-go access, the app allows staff to check system status from any location and respond faster and more effectively. This can save precious minutes when it matters most, especially given the challenges posed by complex, multistory inpatient health care campuses. Facilities managers also have visibility into device health, scheduled maintenance visits, system tests and upcoming inspections.
• Automated, faster, less intrusive testing. A technician can test and inspect detectors from outside the room by connecting to the detector via Bluetooth and conducting a visual and functional test via a cloud-connected app. The technician is less disruptive because they don’t need access to sensitive spaces like operating rooms and ICUs.
• Automated test reports in customizable templates​. Test results generated from inspections can be quickly and easily organized in different formats to meet different inspection requirements. Software should also include cloud-based storage to maintain documentation and an audit trail.
• Scalability and integration. The system should be scalable to accommodate future expansions or changes in building use. It should also ensure that the fire safety system can integrate with other building management platforms, such as security; heating, ventilating and air-conditioning; and emergency communications.

NOTIFIER by Honeywell reinvented the fire safety category with a suite of solutions that deliver all of the above. NOTIFIER Self-Test Series of detectors, NOTIFIER INSPIRE™ fire control systems and Honeywell’s Connected Life Safety Services (CLSS) platform work together to provide health care facilities teams peace of mind that their systems are compliant, and their patients, people and property are protected.

Learn more about NOTIFIER’s suite of solutions here