Checking water quality prior to proceeding with design

Facility name: Regional Medical Center Of San Jose

Project name: RMCSAJ-052017M-ASC(OP Surgery)
Location: SAN JOSE, CA
Project classification: Hospital – Renovation
Project type: Acute Care
Project number: 0838500026
Lesson Learned number: 51
Impact: Cost, Schedule


Lesson Learned/Best Practice

Design team should check water quality on the existing building before proceeding with design.

On 6-5-19 we submitted RFI-0087, which read, ” On A17-01 Equipment Plan, the Steris AMSCO 400 sterilizer is tagged “703”.  The legend on the same page indicates 703 as “WATER FILTER SYSTEM”.  No filter system associated with this sterilizer is indicated on the plumbing plans not on the equipment data.  Is this reference to a filter a typographical error?”

P+W’s response was, “The water filter equipment tag 703 was placed as a reminder for the Team to verify water quality being fed into the sterilizer.”

Layton then hired a laboratory to test the water, and the results showed that the water did not meet the published standards from Steris for their sterilization equipment.  This triggered the design team to explore the addition of the water filtration system.  We were thinking it would be a pretty simple item when it came up, but what was presented in ASI 7 is quite extensive.


Suggested Actions for Future Projects

Design team should check water quality on the existing building before proceeding with design.


Actions Taken / Current Status

Sent to Commissioning team for follow-up action.  Consider adding this to the pre-con checklist.

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