Notifier Veterans Administration Case Study

Project Pro le Veterans Administration THOSE WHO SERVE U S Veterans Administration VA provides healthcare disability bene ts home loans life insurance and educational assistance to the nation veterans At the Veterans Administration Palo Alto Health Care System in Oakland Calif more than 85,000 veterans receive some of the nest medical care delivered by dedicated doctors using cutting edge VAPAHCS also is a teaching hospital af liated with Stanford Univer and provides training for 1,300 residents interns and students each year part of an unprecedented amount of construction and expansion VAPAHCS replaced the entire re alarm system in four buildings a four story hospital with research facilities a four story administration and facility a 9,000 square foot medical imaging facility and a six unit generator building er com WORLD HEADQUARTERS Clintonville Road Northford CT 06472 USA 203 484 7161 Fax 203 484 7118 er com Electronic Systems Inc Oakland began on the project by performing eld surveys and what the system sequence of opera for evacuation noti cation and response proce would be and two years later construction and was complete Intrepid was one of General Services Administration GSA partners were asked to prepare bids for the project choosing the NOTIFIER product for its re replacement the government could limit solicitation to GSA partners said Kurt Brink principal operated as the general contractor on the and worked directly with its only subcon AON Fire Protection Engineering Chicago to a system that would meet the VA installa guidelines then Intrepid also has completed the design installation of a NOTIFIER re alarm system at John Muir Medical Center which is a 324 bed million acute care facility in Walnut Creek was tasked with providing a turnkey de installation that replaced the existing re systems in four buildings without any disrup of service to the existing devices or controls more than 1,200 intelligent devices in the four consist of pull stations smoke heat and detectors control and monitoring modules noti cation devices including speakers graphic annunciators microphone stations soft key switches to activate evacu zones and other system interfaces which to be integrated with the security mechanical electrical systems throughout each building conduit was run from the new NOTIFIER re control panels to 35 existing alarm panel Duplicate main site re alarm panels maintained during the project and both new existing NOTIFIER systems were monitored and in parallel requirement that the existing system remain led Intrepid to employ multiple shifts installers and electricians in the migration from existing system while the new system in each area was pretested each segment of the new system became 02 12 the old components had to be removed which did alleviate traf c in the work Brinkman said entire re alarm system is a vast network con by ber optic cabling and it serves as the of a sophisticated noti cation system by NOTIFIER ONYXWorks graphic it can be controlled from virtually on campus and it features integrated voice evacuation that can broadcast multiple messages simultaneously Each of the net control panels is individually programmed operates independently yet cohesively as part the uni ed network rapid response system can communicate with person one building an entire campus or mul campuses said Norman Clevenger Intrepid manager MANY CHALLENGES the general contractor Intrepid was responsible all of the engineering coordination training installation and commissioning we been installing re alarm systems serving as an engineered system integration for specialty low voltage electronic since 1997 this was our rst large design project Brinkman said managed its general contractor respon by closely coordinating the needs of the hospital department heads and stakehold and ensuring that hospital staff members responders and dispatch personnel continually updated close coordination was required because the had to maintain code compliant re protection the duration of the installation Clevenger said the existing re alarm system network required that each of the smoke control in each building has its own re alarm control The new system reduced that number 35 to networked NOTIFIER control panels New ber cabling was installed and the network was tested to verify proper operation and signaling the main site re alarm panel located at the police center and to the monitoring system station the maintenance facility monitoring system is scalable for future mass cation functions if desired Clevenger said contract also stated that installing the new re alarm should not disrupt any of the mechani systems The major concern of course was to that the air ow to the operating theaters and intensive care units recovery rooms and patient isolation units was never or impeded 24 mechanical and re alarm zones we to continuously verify the existence of the system interfaces and the operation of of the mechanical zones he said overcome that challenge the company reverse the operations of the existing mechani systems to con rm that they functioned as designed and then monitored them for deviations during construction crew atypically composed of an average of two wiremen and an average of four sound and technicians needed to obtain federal clearances and site speci c training that system installation methods and the VA ex on dealing with staff patients and visitors any VA hospital the care and respect received the veterans is the top concern Brinkman said Intrepid was nished the company had an old outdated re alarm system and a new sophisticated system in an acute hospital without a single false alarm or com from the patients visitors or hospital staff coordination and communication are key to successfully concluding any project said Reprinted with permission from the January 2012 issue of Electrical Contractor magazine over 60 years NOTIFIER has been a leader in the re alarm industry Today we are the largest of engineered re alarm systems with over 400 distributors worldwide and regional operations on every continent for the exibility and options your business needs Leaders in Life Safety Technology