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RHP’s Certified Industrial Hygienists (CIHs) and Certified Safety Professionals (CSPs) have decades of experience in mitigating risks and discretely managing issues within the built environment of the healthcare (hospitals, physician offices, dentist offices) and hospitality (hotels and resorts) industries. The periodic building occupancies within healthcare buildings and multi-functionality of hospitality buildings present unique challenges for stakeholders within these industries. RHP works with you in investigating and finding solutions related to building ventilation and indoor air quality (IAQ) and indoor environmental quality (IEQ), Legionella and water management, and hazardous building materials inspection and sampling.
Ventilation Services
The sensitive nature of the occupants in healthcare facilities and the importance of thermal comfort and good air quality within the hospitality sector drives a need for monitoring and validation of ventilation efficacy to ensure optimal performance. Ventilation system assessments provide valuable information and benefits to stakeholders within the healthcare and hospitality industries that include operating cost reduction, indoor air quality improvements, occupant comfort, and liability and risk reduction. RHP’s experience with evaluating and validating building ventilation performance can provide valuable insight to ensure the health of a building and its occupants.
With evidence that infectious aerosols can transmit from respiratory droplets and via airborne particles in the indoor environment and with recommended risk reduction measures such as improving engineering controls using building ventilation, healthcare and hospitality stakeholders should consider evaluating the performance of current building ventilation systems, implementing supplemental ventilation engineering controls to further reduce the risk of indoor infectious disease transmission, and validating the efficacy of new control measures. DNA tracer aerosol technology, veriDART® by SafeTraces, is a well suited tool for evaluating buildings to identify areas of previously unknown concern and verify/quantify the added benefit of newly added control measures like standalone HEPA filtration devices or upgraded filters in air handlers. A successful customized building ventilation assessment for risk reduction strategies can be implemented to protect workers and provide a safe and healthy workplace.
Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) & Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)
Often indoor air quality (IAQ) and indoor environmental quality (IEQ) complaints are driven by design or mechanical components within and around healthcare and hospitality buildings that are not working effectively or efficiently. Such inefficiencies may impact occupant health, comfort, well-being and productivity. Common attributes that can contribute to poor IAQ and IEQ and can potentially create health concerns that lead to claims of sick building syndrome (SBS) include biological pollutants, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), lead, nitrogen dioxide, combustion by products, temperature and relative humidity, tobacco/vaping smoke, indoor particulate matter, asbestos, mold, and ergonomics/lighting/noise.
RHP services and consulting utilizes advanced and cutting-edge IAQ and IEQ analytical sampling and testing, forensic detection, and risk management solutions within the built environment of healthcare and hospitality industries. RHP works with building engineers to ensure building engineering systems are operating at optimal capacity to keep buildings free of pollutants or conditions (mold and moisture) that lead to poor IAQ and IEQ.
RHP understands the importance of clean indoor air within the built environment and responds to client concerns, complaints and requests following reliable, defensible and understandable data and work products rooted in sound science.
Mold Investigations / Mold Remediation Oversight
Building structures of all types and sizes are potentially vulnerable to mold damage. Microscopic mold spores are abundant in nature and are ever present inside and outside of buildings. When water intrusion or high humidity occur in the built environment, mold spores can activate and grow into colonies. Indoor mold growth in built environments can generate unpleasant odors, cause adverse health effects, degrade building materials, and reduce a building’s value.
RHP professionals have decades of experience in investigating the presence and causation of mold growth in a variety of building types including commercial, institutional, and healthcare settings. RHP services include inspections, detection, testing, remediation specifications, remediation oversight and verification.
Infectious Disease Plans
RHP’s industrial hygienist and safety experts employ their experience and training to advise and guide healthcare and hospitality industry stakeholders in navigating the uncertainties and challenges presented during and after a pandemic such as the COVID-19 pandemic. We work in collaboration with healthcare and hospitality clients to assess and develop health and safety management plans to protect their most vital resources – their workforce, their occupants and their reputation. RHP evaluates workplaces, the work process, and workforce tasks to provide detailed infectious disease plans to keep your facility in compliance.
By following current best-practice guidance from authoritative entities like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an employer is in a strong position to show compliance and risk reduction. Through testing and validation of your business engineering and administrative control measures such as building ventilation, employee personal protective equipment (PPE), training, and personal hygiene, RHP scientists provide the data and documentation of the efficacy of your plan. By validating these measures, employers reduce their company’s liability risk and their employee’s health risk in the workplace.
Respirator Fit Testing
RHP‘s occupational health and safety professionals regularly perform Quantitative Fit Testing (QNFT) and Qualitative Fit Testing (QLFT) for employers looking to provide employees within the healthcare and hospitality industries proper and well fitted PPE to protect them from respiratory hazards and to fulfill regulatory requirements detailed in OSHA’s Respiratory Protection Standard 29 CFR 1910.134.
Water Management Plans
RHP Risk Management’s health and safety professionals have decades of experience performing a variety of water management related consulting services including general water quality testing for contaminants such as lead, copper, arsenic, nitrates, and coliforms; specific regulatory related lead in water sampling and thorough building water system assessments, and testing for legionella in healthcare and hospitality buildings.
Legionella
RHP’s water management plan (WMP) development and validation services include the development and validation of a site-specific WMP to reduce the growth and spread of building-related Legionella following best-practice guidance as noted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) / American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE®) under Standard 188.
RHP professionals work with onsite staff, management and owners to review WMP requirements and evaluate the current building water system design; develop a redesigned water system flow diagram; and assist with the development of a custom WMP. Following implementation of a site-specific WMP, RHP experts proficient and trained in providing Legionella water testing services, can assist with WMP validation by collecting water samples to be analyzed by a CDC-elite Legionella laboratory testing facility. RHP is a Legionella Assessment and Management Plan Support (LAMPS) partner with ASSE-certified professional Legionella water safety and management specialists.
Contact Us
RHP’s group of Certified Industrial Hygienists and Certified Safety Professionals provide environmental health and safety solutions within the healthcare and hospitality industries. Contact RHP Risk Management for an initial phone consultation and learn more about our professional services.
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