Clover Health Care
Client Since: 2009
Client Type: A progressive leader in health care, the first to introduce the concept of continuum of care in the state of Maine. Resident-centered approach accommodates varying levels of care.
Project: Clover Health Care operates several diverse levels of care from their facility in Auburn, Maine. Skilled nursing care is offered in one section, hospice care in another area and independent living is available in a third area. Daycare is also offered on site. Because each of these uses requires adherence to different rules of the Life Safety Code, Building Controls maintains a comprehensive addressable building fire alarm system installed at the facility. With over 340 fire alarm sensors, the fire alarm system at Clover Health Care is a critical to the health and safety of Clover’s many residents, staff and visitors. The system monitors 3 sprinkler systems, 3 kitchen hood extinguishing systems, includes 8 remote system annunciators located at various nurse stations, over 200 smoke detectors and dozens of heat detectors and manual pull stations.
Highlights:
• The addressable system has the capability to activate alarm notification in some sections, and not in others, in response to where the alarm is located. The many remote annunciators allow staff in one section to assist with evacuation in another area by easily identifying the area in alarm by the exact point, including a customized English description of the alarm location. This allowed the facility to lower its evacuation times and maintain compliance with State and Local fire official’s requirements.
• Building Controls LLC provides scheduled maintenance of the system and its components, including system back-up battery load testing, sensor cleaning and functional testing and tracking of how long various components have been in service which helps Clover Health Care to budget for replacement of smoke detectors which are recommended for 10 year replacement. The results of this testing is available via a comprehensive report stored and available at a login-protected website, allowing Clover Health Care to see up to 5 years of testing history in one place. They can print duplicate reports anytime at no charge. Details of the testing are provided in a format that meets State Fire Marshal’s requirements, including time/date stamping of each tested component.
•Building Controls LLC interfaces various building life-safety functions with the building fire alarm system, providing a single-vendor solution with minimizes cost and confusion about what systems work with other systems. For example, during a fire alarm, various electronically-locked doors will release, allowing immediate exit from the building. Because Building Controls LLC also provides the door locking system, integration is tight and seamless, eliminating the ‘finger pointing’ that too often happens when one system vendor tries to integrate with another and things don’t work as designed.
Relevance: Building Controls LLC utilized a wide range of skills and capabilities in assisting Clover Health Care with their various life safety systems. The integration of all of the systems resulted in a system that 'just works', without headaches and the extra costs associated with a patchwork of systems, components and vendors.
