Healthcare & Medical
In healthcare, the MEP is part of the standard of care. Air changes, room pressurization, isolation, and a power system that has to be back within seconds are written into code line-by-line — and, for many facility types, reviewed by a state health department as well as the building official.
Where the Code Protects the Patient.
Pressure relationships, air-change rates, and filtration aren’t comfort settings here — they’re infection control, written into ASHRAE 170 and the FGI Guidelines and enforced by the AHJ. We design ventilation to each room’s actual function and an essential electrical system to NEC 517 — documented the way the licensed engineer of record on your project and any reviewing health authority each need to read it.
Ventilation & Infection Control
Every room’s pressure, air changes, and filtration are set by its clinical function — not by comfort.
- ASHRAE 170 / FGI air-change rates and pressure relationships by space type
- Operating rooms, AII (negative) and PE (positive) isolation rooms
- MERV and HEPA filtration set per ASHRAE 170 by space type, with laminar/terminal diffuser design where the room requires it
- Humidity and temperature control for ORs and sterile processing
- Dedicated outdoor air and energy recovery within code limits
- Air-balance and pressurization documentation for commissioning
Essential Electrical System (NEC 517)
When normal power fails, the life-safety and critical branches must be restored within 10 seconds.
- Essential electrical system — life-safety, critical, and equipment branches where a Type 1 system is required, or the two-branch Type 2 or other arrangement the facility calls for
- Generator plant and transfer-switch coordination per NFPA 110
- Isolated power or GFCI protection for wet procedure locations per NEC 517.20
- Selective coordination per NEC 700.32 for emergency systems; essential electrical system overcurrent coordination per NEC 517.31(G) (faults lasting longer than 0.1 s); arc-flash study per IEEE 1584 / NFPA 70E with label data for field marking per NEC 110.16
- Normal/emergency panel and branch separation
- Receptacle and circuit counts to FGI and NEC 517 by room type
Plumbing
We design the conventional plumbing around the med-gas specialist’s system.
- Sanitary, domestic water, and storm to IPC/UPC
- Scald protection and Legionella risk management — design provisions supporting the facility’s ASHRAE 188 water-management program and applicable ASHRAE Guideline 12 control measures
- Specialty drainage for imaging, lab, and sterile processing — including sterilizer condensate and live-steam waste with cooling provisions
Imaging, OR & Specialty Spaces
Imaging and procedure rooms carry MEP loads the rest of the building never sees.
- MRI suite — magnet cooling, quench vent, and RF-shield coordination
- CT, fluoroscopy, and cath-lab power, cooling, and shielding interfaces
- Operating-room integration — booms, lights, HVAC, isolated power
- Sterile processing (SPD) humidity, exhaust, and equipment utilities
- Equipment heat-load and redundancy for critical diagnostics
Codes, Reviews & Resilience
Healthcare can answer to a department of health on top of the building code. An acute-care hospital, an ambulatory surgery center, an imaging suite and a medical office building fall under different requirements — the FGI Guidelines apply where a state has adopted them — and only some trigger state health-department review; we confirm which apply at kickoff.
- State health authority plan review — HCAI (formerly OSHPD) in California, FGI-based review in many other jurisdictions
- Seismic and essential-facility resilience where required
Monitoring & Existing Systems
Pressure relationships and air changes have to hold after turnover, not just on the balancing report.
- Permanent room-pressure monitors with local and building-automation alarms at airborne-infection-isolation (AII) and protective-environment (PE) rooms
- Temperature, humidity, and pressure alarms for operating rooms and sterile processing routed to facilities
- Unoccupied operating-room air-change turndown where ASHRAE 170 permits it, with the room’s pressure relationship held
- Sequences of operation, airflow schedules, and balancing criteria written for the TAB contractor and the commissioning agent
- Existing-system capacity review — air handlers, chilled water, and essential-electrical-system headroom — from the owner's record drawings and load data before a renovation ties in new load
Yes — that’s the core of healthcare HVAC. We set each space’s air-change rate, pressure relationship, and filtration to ASHRAE 170 and the FGI Guidelines for its clinical function, then document the air balance and pressure map so the commissioning agent and, where required, the health authority can verify it. The pressure map is part of the set, not an afterthought.
Yes. We design the NEC 517 essential electrical system — life-safety, critical, and equipment branches where a Type 1 system is required — with transfer switches and a generator plant coordinated to NFPA 110, plus isolated power for wet procedure locations where required. Overcurrent coordination and arc-flash are built into the documents behind your seal.
The med-gas system is designed by others, to NFPA 99. We design the conventional plumbing around it and coordinate the HVAC exhaust, power, and space provisions into the set.
By designing the verification in. Airborne-infection-isolation and protective-environment rooms get permanent pressure monitors with local and building-automation alarms; operating rooms and sterile processing get temperature, humidity, and pressure alarms routed to facilities; and the sequences and balancing criteria are written so the commissioning agent tests against a documented target. Where ASHRAE 170 permits it, unoccupied operating-room turndown saves energy while the pressure relationship holds. The licensed engineer of record on your project reviews and seals the set.