Needless to say, hospitals are used to managing risk. Whether it’s with patients, access, or information – hospitals deal with a wide range of challenges every day.

When it comes to fire safety, hospitals face as many challenges as intricate industrial manufacturers do. Not only are there dozens of ways for fires to start, but hospitals face many unique challenges in terms of the risks associated with the consequences of those fires. Not just from patient safety but information, records keeping, and the risk of losing expensive, life-saving equipment.

Here are a few of the unique fire safety challenges that hospitals face:

Evacuation

Almost every patient at a hospital is dealing with some sort of severe injury or illness. That makes walking independently and getting from here to there all the more challenging – and for some – it’s impossible. As such, having a system that quickly extinguishes, isolates, or detects fire is critical to patient safety. It also buys precious time for staff to be able to move patients and transport them to safety.

Labs with Flammable Materials

Most hospitals have on-campus laboratories that examine specimens. In many cases, they use flammable materials and chemical compounds that can sometimes cause fires. These laboratories have to be equipped with the right suppression tools and need to be inspected regularly in order to prevent a fire.

Kitchens

Just like a retailer, shopping mall, plaza, or restaurant, every hospital has an on-campus food service provider of some sort. And just like those places, it’s vital to make sure you have the appropriate fire prevention equipment on-site. The #1 place most fires start in the kitchen, so making sure the equipment is up to code and regularly inspected is essential.

Special hazards

In hospitals, there are dozens of unique machines such as MRI scanners that are not only expensive but can pose fire concerns. In many cases, this special equipment isn’t or can’t be protected by a traditional sprinkler. Instead, special agents need to be used in order to suppress the fire and hopefully save the machine and lives.

This is doubly true for things like data centers where patient information is stored. Clean agent suppression systems or mist suppression systems need to be deployed in order to protect not only the patients but the computers their information lives on as well.

If you are a healthcare provider looking for routine maintenance, installation, or repairs, please contact Protegis Fire & Safety.