Equipment Must Interoperate
The integrated systems concept has crept its way into the healthcare field. As technology improves, everything ties together. In a hospital, you have paging, security, fire, and nurse call systems all communicating with one another. According to Patrick Williams, a fire alarm systems designer for S.A. Comunale Co. Inc. in Marion, Ohio, this means more time is spent “with our noses in the books. Before, you just needed to know about your own piece of the system. Now you have to know how your piece communicates with the other pieces in the puzzle. We need
to know what devices have data flowing freely, whether it’s an RS485 signal (protocol for serial communications) we need to get up, or using a BACnet (Building Automation and Control Networking Protocol) type system or just relays to communicate. We need to know what other equipment is capable of doing so we can specify our equipment to be compatible with them.”
Senior Care Adopting Addressable Systems
Senior care, although considered healthcare, is treated as a separate entity. Only in the last decade have health departments started enforcing the NFPA Life Safety Code (see VHA sidebar) and are requiring more from fire alarm systems. Traditionally, state and local fire marshals dealt with fire and life safety requirements in senior care facilities; now, state and federal health departments are involved. According to Williams, “the health department has required additional fire alarms and scheduled joint commission inspections for 12 or 15 years down the road for several existing nursing homes. They used to accept whatever the marshals deemed was necessary.”
This sector is starting to see more facilities choosing addressable fire alarm systems. Addressable systems provide early, constant real-time monitoring of many open areas or individual rooms. They pinpoint – as accurately as possible – the source of smoke before it progresses to more advanced, damaging stages. These addressable systems are also capable of directing personnel to trouble areas quickly, minimizing smoke contamination.
Many facilities are running on tight budgets, and would rather maintain zoned systems, but they’re starting to move toward addressable systems. “If you’re using an addressable system, you aren’t required to connect to a nurse call system in the state of Ohio since it has the individual points of address,” states Williams. “In the past, the zone had to be connected to the call system to identify the room location.”
An addressable system will be less expensive to maintain over the life of the system as the cost of inspection declines. Routine maintenance costs are also minimized because the detector will alert you when cleaning is needed. An addressable system also cuts back on false alarms and provides quicker response. In case of an alarm, it identifies which alarm went off, instead of just identifying what wing of the building is in alarm. “From what I see, more and more specifications are requiring smoke and heat combo units to cut down on false alarms. Instead of either smoke or dust setting off an alarm, combo units require both smoke and heat to be present,” says Williams.
Combo units can be installed in assisted living facilities where people can generally get around better and move to safety more quickly than some other types of healthcare residents. “If it’s a nursing home with patients who are bedridden, we stick with traditional smoke detectors,” notes Williams. “The nice thing about addressable systems is that you can mix and match. If you have a facility where one wing is for Alzheimer’s patients, one wing is a typical nursing home, and another is for assisted living, we can get the right product in the right area.”
