The world has had to put many things on hold since the COVID-19 outbreak began. Each of us has had to give things up, including nights out with friends, watching and attending sporting events, and family vacations, to name a few. Schools are closed. For many of us, our workplaces are closed. Construction sites are shut down. We’ve really had to reexamine what is most important. Safety and security are without a doubt at the top of everyone’s list right now.
Hospitals are also vitally important at this time. In fact, the existing buildings aren’t enough to meet the demand imposed by the coronavirus. New York and other major metropolitan areas are getting hit especially hard, and temporary structures are being erected to provide increased space for our beloved, hard-working doctors and nurses to save lives.
Healthcare settings are held to some of the highest standards under ordinary circumstances, but these are no ordinary circumstances. Even so, adherence to code is still a necessity. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has released new guidelines in its Temporary Compliance Options for Code Modifications, Alternate Care Sites, and Facilities Related to Health Care bulletin. In it, the NFPA, along with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), acknowledges that these are unprecedented times which call for a relaxing of codes that:
“…allows health care providers to focus on dealing with the influx of new patients and devising means and methods to provide an adequate number of beds to treat patients who are specifically diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus…Strict adherence and compliance with the usual code requirements… must be set aside as the need to manage and treat patients and protect healthcare workers has come to compete with and, at times, conflict with requirements for protection from fire.”
It’s quite common for temporary buildings to be constructed for many reasons, a pandemic being the latest one. Regardless of its purpose, a short-term shelter poses its own unique security concerns – something that isn’t often accounted for in the haste of its planning. Typically, security and alarm systems are hard-wired into the electric of permanent buildings, but how can a shelter that’s going to be torn down in a matter of weeks or months, with no hard wiring, be best protected?
Ramtech has a solution. The WES3 Wireless Evacuation and Emergency System can be set up anywhere in a matter of minutes. Units are equipped with a medical alert button that can be raised in case of an emergency. The capability of offsite communication is an invaluable benefit for administrators. This innovative technology delivers a trusted, state-of-the-art fire safety system capable of encompassing and safeguarding an entire temporary structure, its occupants, and its surrounding properties. The system can help to get temporary structures as close to code compliance as possible.
The NFPA bulletin states that regardless of relaxed guidelines, use of non-hospital buildings, infrastructure changes to existing hospitals, and installation of freestanding structures in open air spaces must “continue to maintain the overall goals and objectives” set forth in the codes and standards. Safety cannot be compromised, even when it seems very challenging to implement. What this calls for is a high degree of flexibility. The WES3 System, coupled with its cloud-based communication platform REACT, a completely adaptable fire detection system and so much more, that meets this need for flexibility in an efficient and cost-effective way.
NFPA code also requires sprinkler protection, which existing buildings have, but there’s no straightforward way to extend that protection into individual, enclosed patient areas. It recommends that a “potential alternative to address fire protection in that scenario might be to provide smoke detection or, at a minimum, single-station smoke alarms inside each of those individual spaces to provide early warning.” No system is better equipped to handle that than WES3. The wireless units are easy to set up and immediately form a network of protection throughout the entire site. With WES3, it is simple to implement security in a “set it and forget it” way, so facilities can continue to provide the highest possible standard of care.
As the world braces for challenging times ahead, Ramtech and its distributors stand committed to supporting customers. While everyone does their part by staying at home, logistics teams do theirs by working tirelessly around the clock to ensure the ability to carry on helping customers to protect their people and properties. In addition, as highly valued healthcare professionals and fire officials are busy combating the threat from COVID-19 in these temporary structures, they should also feel protected from other unseen hazards such as fire. Let’s work the problem together and be the solution with WES3 so our healthcare professionals can do their jobs effectively. Because we have given up enough already. For more information, please visit www.wessafety.com.
