Industry contractors are asked each year at the NYC: 4th Annual Hospital, Outpatient Facilities & Medical Office Buildings Summit to share tips, trick and traps that FMs, designers and real estate executives should avoid. Here were the suggestions from this year’s summit:
Balazs Boldog, Cambridge Sound management
- The question “How quiet was your space?” on the HCAHPS exit survey is often the lowest rated question by patients. Sound masking can increase your HCAHPS score by 30 or so percent.
- Sound masking is placed where you have unintended listeners not where the conversation takes place. You don’t put it in the conference rooms, you put it outside the conference room.
Phil Russell, Planon
- Have a comprehensive database that keeps all compliance info in one place.
- Universities and hospitals need to have all their data in one place and accessible on dashboards by students or patients.
- When hospitals are buying other hospitals, make sure you are buying their data as well.
Mark Izsa, Specified Technologies
- Identify where your overfill cable sleeves are. They are noncompliant once they start reaching 48 percent. You do not want to add or remove putty or sealant from your firestop openings. Avoid the trap of additional labor.
Joshua Esposito, nora systems
- Get the technical reps involved early. Ours all have at least 30 years installation experience.
- What’s going on beneath your flooring? A lot of people assume a skim coat is good enough but what equipment is going over it? Your floor will only be as good as your substrate.