Construction specifications typically would specify the Commissioning standards / procedures that are required to be followed. Unfortunately up until recently Commissioning for a Health Care Facility was no different than it was for an office building, an apartment building or a commercial establishment. This webinar will explain how the commissioning process in general works for most facilities and what the expectations of the Health Care Facility should be. The webinar will also show the differences between the Commission standard CSA Z320-11 (R2016) and the new CSA Z8001-13 Standard for Commissioning of Health Care Facilities. The webinar will focus in on the pitfalls of not doing commissioning or not paying attention to the commissioning process and as well as the benefits of doing commissioning correctly.

The presentation will provide the audience with an overview of the Model Code requirements specific to:

• Distinctions between fire and smoke door assemblies
• Typical locations within healthcare occupancies that require their installation
• Existing conditions and the need for upgrading
• The applicable Codes and Standards applicable to installation
• Various hardware requirements, such as hold open devices, panic hardware, etc.
• Security considerations
• Air leakage requirements and NFPA 105, “Smoke Door Assemblies and Other Opening Protectives
• The maintenance of these assemblies over the life of the building

Since the introduction of CSA Z317.13, Infection Control during Construction or Renovation of Health Care Facilities, there has been friction between the Infection Control Group and the Facilities Management group within Eastern Health as to how projects should be done, inspected and closed out as per the CSA Z-317.13 standard. The end result of this friction is conflict between the parties involved, delays in getting projects completed and substantial additional costs added to the projects. The one commonality between the parties was the understanding that something had to change.

For Eastern Health, that change came in the review of Eastern Health’s policy on Infection Control during construction or renovation of Eastern Health’s facilities. The policy was revised to ensure more emphasis on the use of Multi-Disciplinary teams for projects. By the time the webinar is ready to be presented (hopefully in late 2020) we will have had almost a full year to work within the new policy. The webinar will show the issues encountered, how they were resolved, what worked and what didn’t. The webinar will present lessons learned to participants.

• The concept of “qualified persons” that was introduced within the current medical gas standard
• Who are these “qualified persons” now cited within the standard
• Who within your facility perhaps should be your designated as your medical gas “qualified operators (QO)”?
• What is the role of a QO?
• What are requirements to be a QO?
  • Experience-wise,
  • Responsibility-wise and
  • Educationally.
• What  tools are available for you to pursue this designation?