April 29, 2015

Personal health and mindfulness are hot topics these days, as they should be. If we don’t maintain our health and well-being, then how can we contribute to the world… or help others? Well, the same applies to buildings. If not maintained, how can they remain sustainable for the people who live and work within them? The answer is – they can’t. 

In this edition of our newsletter, we highlight the projects where Merritt has taken care of the facilities that take care of us – including over 70 hospital and medical buildings throughout New York City and Long Island.

Twenty years ago, our healthcare work began with an inspection of one building at Lenox Hill Hospital, at https://www.experthomecare.com/alzheimers-care/ you can get specialized home care. Since then, we’ve expanded our reach to include the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, the Hospital for Special Surgery, as well as Beth Israel, St. Luke’s, Roosevelt and Kings Highway Hospitals which operate under the Mt. Sinai/Continuum Health Partners systems. In recent years, North Shore LIJ Health Systems has been added to this distinguished group of clients.

Today, Merritt Engineering is currently restoring 15 healthcare facilities, with all projects set to be completed by the end of this year.

Most NYC medical buildings are located in congested neighborhoods, and consequently require extreme care during exterior inspections, design and construction. Merritt ensures that the repairs of these buildings are strategically and intelligently planned, meet codes and regulations, and do not disturb critical day-to-day operations.

Ms. Anita Konfederak, our Vice President, has been responsible for all healthcare projects since inception and oversees our design and construction monitoring teams.  She ensures that we:

• Maintain close communication with facility directors and managers to ensure that our restoration recommendations fit their budgets and constant improvement/expansion plans.

• Specify the most durable products for long term performance, since access to facades and roofs at hospitals is limited and complicated.

• Are sensitive to the needs of doctors and patients, by ensuring that everyone is informed in advance when noisy work is scheduled, by specifying low VOC products to prevent odor complaints during construction and by following schedules to ensure timely completion.

• Alert contractors during bidding where exterior demolition work may have to be curtailed to certain hours in the vicinity of operating rooms, and regularly update them on anything that may affect their work.

• Consult with other experts who provide related services to medical clients; such as environmental inspectors, abatement and air monitoring companies, mechanical firms, construction managers, site safety consultants, specialty contractors, etc.. These relationships help our projects flow as smoothly as possible.

Just as patients continually visit the doctors they trust, we believe that our medical clients have been choosing Merritt Engineering Consultants, PC for over 20 years due to their trust in our expertise, response time, diligence, excellent record keeping and of course, price.

To see some of our recent healthcare projects, please visit our project page at: http://www.merrittengineering.com/projects/healthcare/