How Hospitals Can Recover After Sustaining Water Damage

Even though water is essential to life, when it occurs in the wrong area or in vast amounts, water can be destructive to people and properties. Hospitals all have a mission to care for their community’s injured and sick residents. Since illness and accidents do not hold 9 to 5 hours, hospitals and other healthcare providers can’t simply shut their doors after a certain time. Keeping this in mind, hospital administrators need to prepare for potential disasters that can happen at any time day or night.

Water damage can be devastating when it occurs to a residential home. It can cause loss of profits and inventory when it occurs at a business. When water damage affects a hospital, anyone within the building then becomes vulnerable, and hospital administrators have to enact their disaster response codes. Unlike other businesses, a hospital cannot just call a local plumber to handle a major water event. There are specific safety and heath regulations and requirements set up by state and federal officials charged with this duty. Any outside company also needs to be certified, up-to-date on their training and documentation requirements and be trained in very intense and precise methods for handling a water crisis inside of a healthcare institution.

Water restoration for hospitals has different rules and regulations than other area businesses would be required to do in the same situation. Any water restoration company that a hospital would hire has to show actual documents that prove that their team has completed the necessary training, demonstrated the specific skills needed and have the required equipment needed to handle the job in a safe and effective manner. Additionally, the company must keep all training and certification records up-to-date to be eligible to take on this sort of water restoration work within the hospital building or grounds.

Basically, the restoration experts will need to put up a temporary barrier wall before starting on any work if there is mold found or suspected. The water quality must be assessed, and certain measures are done accordingly for dirty, contaminated, grossly contaminated and designated clean water assessment results. Special industrial equipment able to safely extract the water needs to be approved for OSHA safety requirements that govern the laws in these catastrophe situations. Amy unsafe structures must also be repaired. Water events inside a hospital need professional attention.