How to Deal with Construction Site Contamination

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Hospital Construction

• How to Deal with Construction Site Contamination

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Table of Contents

• 6 crucial stages that will help you deal with
  hospital site contamination
• Stage 1 Desktop Study and Soil Testing
• Stage 2 Construction Limits
• Stage 3 Regulatory Standards Compliance
• Stage 4 Better Housekeeping
• Stage 5 Validation
• Stage 6 Contractor Report
• Insiders Tips to avoid getting ripped off by a
  General Contractor 
• Healthcare Construction An Overview of
  Challenges and Potential Solutions
• Demand for Future Renovations
• Limited Construction Funding
• Maintaining Building Standards
• Completion Delays

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6 crucial stages that will help you deal with
hospital site contamination

• Constructing a hospital is never easy, more so
  when you have to deal with site contamination.
  You have to limit the levels of air and water
  pollution to ensure that no lives are lost.
  Remember, you are also responsible for the
  adjacent lands and not just your construction
  site. You also need to put measures in place to
  prevent future contamination once the hospital
  construction is complete.
• Here are 6 crucial stages that will help you deal
  with hospital site contamination

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Stage 1 Desktop Study and Soil Testing

• Chances are that the past owner of the piece of
  land where you are building filed a report
  concerning the site. You need to check for this
  report with the land authority and find old maps
  related to your construction site.
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• The examination of the reports is called Desktop
  Study and is crucial in deciding whether to test
  the soil or not. If the reports show that the
  land is possibly contaminated, then you should
  test the soil right away to establish the level
  of contamination.
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Stage 2 Construction Limits

• After studying the Desktop Study Report, you
  should establish construction limits to reduce
  the risks of site contamination. Some of the
  measures you can observe at this stage are
• Proper wall ventilation
• Ductwork sealing
• HVAC protection and cleaning
• Distinguished entries and exits
• System isolation
• Utility coordination
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• With the right construction limits in place, you
  can work towards reducing site contamination to
  acceptable limits.

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Stage 3 Regulatory Standards Compliance

• You need a checklist that shows all the basic
  regulations that need to be observed throughout
  the construction. For example, your workers need
  to be aware of the Infection Control Risk
  Assessment (ICRA) standards to prevent infections
  on site. You also need to do auditing at the
  hospital construction site to check if the laid
  out regulatory standards are observed. During the
  audits, you can make adjustments and special
  requests

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Stage 4 Better Housekeeping

• Housekeeping is a necessity when looking to
  reduce the risks of hospital site contamination.
  You need to avoid the buildup of pollutants
  through the following strategies
• Neat stacking of construction supplies
• Proper storage of sensitive materials
• Maintaining a clean worksite
• Pre-treating contaminated surfaces
• minimizing dust emission

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Stage 5 Validation

• After performing soil testing and coming up with
  regulatory standards, you need to show evidence
  of compliance. Simply, you need a completion
  certificate that you obtain from the local
  construction authority. This allows both the
  workers and the adjacent inhabitants to trust
  that they are not under any contamination threat.
  

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Stage 6 Contractor Report

• Lastly, you should provide your contractor with a
  detailed report that shows what is expected of
  them during hospital construction. You have to
  define the expectations from the start to allow
  the project manager to come up with ways to
  reduce the risks of contamination throughout the
  construction. If possible, try to hire a
  construction manager who has first-hand
  experience in dealing with a similar construction
  case.
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• It is never easy to deal with contamination at a
  hospital construction site. But with the right
  policies in place, it is less challenging to do
  it. Your policies need to be simple to implement
  and result-oriented.

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Insiders Tips to avoid getting ripped off by a
General Contractor 

• General contractors are not the same. Some
  contractors are genuine while others are a scam
  at their best. If you are planning a home
  renovation project or you want some construction
  work done altogether, there are high chances you
  are searching for a genuine contractor who will
  not rip you off.
• Here are some insider tips to help you avoid
  getting ripped off by a general contractor.
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• Do Your Homework 
• Get a minimum of three contractors who seem well
  suited for the project at hand. Check with
  industry associations, Angies List and any other
  credible bodies whether these contractors are
  genuine or they have a history of ripping off
  clients. You should also check to see the recent
  projects that each contractor has completed. 

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• Choose A Suitable Contractor From State-Licensed
  Contractors  
• Unscrupulous contractors that take advantage of
  innocent businesses and homeowners are mostly
  unlicensed. To minimize your risk of getting
  swindled by a prospective general contractor,
  make sure the contractor you opt for is licensed.
  Ask the contractor to give you their license
  number for you to verify with your states
  professional and business regulation department
  whether they are indeed licensed.
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• Get References  
• If you already have a licensed contractor in
  mind, do not hesitate to request them to give you
  a couple of recent clients they have worked with.
  Contact those clients and enquire from them the
  kind of experience they had with the contractor.
  If the clients rate the contractor high, then
  obviously you are less likely to be swindled by
  the contractor. Normally, unscrupulous
  contractors do not have credible references they
  can give to prospective clients.

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• Vet and verify 
• Check the credibility of the contractor you
  intend to entrust with your project before
  handing over the project to them. You can verify
  their credibility using Angies List before
  verifying their status with the right licensing
  agency. The contractors should provide you with
  proof of workers compensation insurance as well
  as bonding if applicable.  
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• Get Multiple Bids 
• Getting multiple bids is crucial for ensuring you
  are getting the fairest possible price. Do not
  just compare prices by different general
  contractors, but further check to see what
  exactly is featured in those costs. Be wary of
  contractors that quote prices that are much lower
  than the average competitors are. In most
  instances, scammers use low prices to lure
  potential clients. After landing the project,
  they either ask the client to pay the whole
  amount at once for work to commence.
  Alternatively, they can demand additional
  payments once work on the project has begun. 

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• Recommendations 
• The easiest way to avoid getting ripped off by a
  prospective general contractor is by getting
  recommendations from homeowners or people who
  have worked with a genuine contractor before. As
  such, you should ask around for a suitable
  contractor from neighbors, family members,
  acquaintances, friends, and coworkers who have
  worked with a legitimate contractor before. Make
  sure they explain everything about the contractor
  in detail.
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• Getting a legitimate general contractor for any
  project can be much easier for those with a
  detailed understanding of what to look for in a
  genuine contractor.  Hopefully, the above tips
  will help you choose a genuine contractor.

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Healthcare Construction An Overview of
Challenges and Potential Solutions

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• Healthcare construction is one of the most
  demanding and challenging undertakings in the
  building sector. Subject to ever-changing
  standards and codes, healthcare building requires
  sober and experienced minds coordinated together
  to meet deadlines and demands. It, therefore,
  becomes necessary to examine the potential
  challenges affecting healthcare construction and
  how construction companies can mitigate them for
  timely completion and satisfaction.

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Demand for Future Renovations

• The world population is ever rising, and this
  calls for the construction of more healthcare
  centers. Nevertheless, future developments may
  require hospitals to remodel and expand to
  accommodate newer but complicated systems,
  equipment, and more patients. Contractors must
  plan to meet todays as well as tomorrows
  demands.
• Solution
• Contractors should consult with stakeholders to
  analyze the future demands for healthcare
  buildings. The forecasting can be achieved by
  looking at the competitors plans for the future,
  surging medical practices, predictions of
  hospital services, population trend, and
  potential building code changes in the future.
• Additionally, incorporating unfinished spaces and
  adaptable rooms in a healthcare building allows
  for future expansion and conversions to
  accommodate growth. Contractors should ensure
  that whatever they are building now would remain
  relevant in the future.

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Limited Construction Funding

• With the demand for sophisticated healthcare
  centers increasing, hospital management is
  finding it hard to fund the necessary
  construction improvements required in the
  construction of buildings. Also, capital
  resources are increasingly becoming limited.
• Solution
• Hospitals need to weigh the total construction
  cost against the stipulated budget and opt for
  facility designs and construction methods geared
  to reduce or optimize costs. Comparing the
  services and prices of various proven contractors
  is highly recommendable.
• Secondly, there is a need for hospital or
  construction management to work with financial
  consultants to decide on the type of capital most
  appropriate for the construction and the best
  time to undertake the building phase. This way,
  hospitals can mitigate potentially high costs of
  funding. Additionally, 3-D modeling allows for
  early correction of errors and prevents costly
  future changes.

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Maintaining Building Standards

• As mentioned earlier, building codes are
  ever-changing, or new ones are being introduced
  every other day. This brings in a challenge to
  healthcare construction as buildings should meet
  the stipulated requirements to get approved for
  medical applications. Failure to comply with this
  obligation compromises the buildings safety and
  puts patients and staffs lives at risk.
• Solution
• Healthcare construction is indeed a highly
  specialized project and it is necessary to
  involve certified healthcare facility managers
  and healthcare contractors who will guide
  everyone involved in the project on the best
  practices, regulatory mandates, and accepted
  guidelines. Third-party inspection is paramount
  to ensure that the construction progresses as per
  the standards.

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Completion Delays

• It is becoming harder and harder for healthcare
  constructions to meet deadlines partly due to
  materials used and practices employed. Such
  delays ruin the reputation of contractors besides
  leaving clients dissatisfied. Unmet deadlines
  have also led to standoffs between clients and
  constructors.
• Solution
• It is time for contractors to start investing in
  reliable products and time-saving techniques in
  healthcare construction. For instance, the use of
  rapid-dry cement (guaranteed to dry within 43
  days) has been shown to effectively eliminate
  time-consuming and expensive moisture mitigation
  methods applied to conventional cement.
  Additionally, the prefabrication of building
  components has the potential of reducing
  construction time by half.

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Bottom-line

• Healthcare construction, like any other sector,
  has its share of challenges, but the good thing
  is that there are practical solutions to the
  issues. Through collaboration with stakeholders,
  contractors can employ the strategies discussed
  above to counter off-schedules, meet future
  needs, comply with the statutory standards and
  codes as well as optimize the cost of
  construction.
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• See more at - https//dantobuilders.com/medical-of
  fice-construction-renovation/