By Healthcare Facilities Today

The ACE Group recently announced the release of "Healthcare Construction: Managing the Environmental Risks," a new advisory that discusses the potential risks and considerations healthcare organizations should identify during new construction or renovation projects. 

The advisory also examines opportunities to help mitigate the risks of potential pollutant exposures and describes how healthcare organizations can meet higher standards of care and take a proactive approach to risk management to help minimize the potentially harmful effects of pollutants during construction, according to a news release.

"To keep pace with the advances in medical technology and the advent of healthcare reform, healthcare organizations have begun to upgrade their facilities or build new ones to better serve their patients," Craig Richardson, senior vice president, ACE Environmental Risk, said in the release. "During new healthcare construction or renovation projects, environmental risks can be a challenge because of the hazards the work poses to patients, staff and visitors. ACE's Environmental Risk Practice understands these risks and has developed this advisory to provide useful information to help healthcare facilities better mitigate future pollution risks."

The ACE Environmental Advisory was authored by Gerry Rojewski, vice president and North America product line manager for the ACE Environmental Contractor Program. The advisory is part of a larger series of papers that ACE produces, which are designed to provide information on current industry topics faced by risk managers.

The environmental risks advisory explains how healthcare organizations should put preventative measures in place at the onset of a project which include securing the appropriate environmental insurance coverage. 

"It's a critical step for healthcare organizations to ensure they have the appropriate pollution insurance coverage in place as part of their overall construction project strategy. When seeking the right environmental coverage, contractors should purchase a policy that can be tailored to suit their needs. More specifically, they should consider an owner-controlled insurance program (OCIP), which provides pollution coverage for all construction activities at a particular facility or group of facilities," Rojewski said in the release. "ACE recently launched a Contractor Pollution Liability (CPL) healthcare-specific OCIP program for this very reason. Our program helps both healthcare facility owners and contractors prevent coverage gaps resulting from a wide variety of environmental risks during construction projects by using a single policy form."

Read the report.