STARC Systems Blog

The California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) and the Kansas Office of the State Fire Marshal accepts the first reusable one-hour fire-rated containment solution for occupied renovations

The use of infection control risk assessments (ICRAs) during healthcare construction projects has been a work in progress spanning several decades.

By JANET HAAS, PhD, RN, CIC, Principal Consulting Epidemiologist, Innovative Infection Prevention

Healthcare contractors, facilities managers and others tasked with keeping healthcare renovation projects on schedule and on budget have had their hands full. Yet despite the challenges wrought by inflation, supply chain issues and labor shortages, there are reasons to be hopeful and strategies you can use to thrive through the ...

Hospitals typically employ safety personnel to prioritize patient safety and to ensure that doctors, nurses and staff can do their jobs in a safe environment.

What Class A Fire Rating Means & Why It Matters The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) specifies a burn test (E84) to determine surface burning and smoke generation characteristics of materials used in interior construction. A Class A fire rating represents the highest rating achievable, indicating a flame ...

What is an AIIR? Commonly called a negative pressure isolation room, an airborne infection isolation room (AIIR) is a single-occupancy patient-care room designed to isolate airborne pathogens to a safe containment space. Typically used during healthcare renovation projects, AIIRs leverage negative pressure and a tight envelope, ...

What Comprises a Fire-Rated Wall? Designed to contain fire and smoke for a predetermined amount of time, fire-rated walls are part of a building’s passive fire protection system. Whether permanent or temporary, these walls are inspected against applicable code by the appropriate regulatory authorities, with the goal of ...

Welcome to 2022! As we kick off the New Year, let’s give a quick nod to some of the most relevant topics covered over the past 12 months. Following are the Top Five blog posts that resonated most with our growing audience of commercial contractors, project managers, facilities managers, infection preventionists, and others ...

In December, our FireblockWall™ solution received OPM approval from the California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI, formerly known as the Office of Statewide Health Planning & Development, or OSHPD). HCAI’s allowance applies to temporary construction barriers, when approved for a specific location, ...