Managing the Environmental Risks in Healthcare Facilities

By David Dybdahl

Mention environmental risks in healthcare, and just about everybody thinks of medical waste.

Medical waste is one of the environmental hazards in healthcare facilities.

The new HETI newsletter has some great advice on medical waste disposal choices. 

 

Newsletter #1 HERE by HETI Medical Waste Treatment Technologies currently available technologies

 

Newsletter #2 HERE by HETI Evaluating & selecting Treatment Technologies

 

But medical waste disposal is not the only environmental hazard in healthcare facilities. It is not even the most important risk to manage proactively.

By far, the most significant risks in health care and virtually all commercial buildings are;

  1. Water intrusion events from inside the building,
  2. The effects of Fungi and Bacteria exclusions in property and liability insurance policies.

Losses from waste management practices come in as a distant 3rd for frequency and severity.

All Commercial buildings should have pre-placed emergency response plans with a qualified fire and water damage restoration contractor. A broken sewer pipe on a Sunday night is no time to figure out who to call to prevent further damage and remove the bio-hazards.

Some environmental risks can be financed essentially cost-free with a good set of insurance requirements for the vendors that provide services within the building. A functional set of insurance requirements for the vendors servicing the building should not ignore the existence of universal exclusions for pollution/fungus /mold/bacteria exclusions in both liability and property insurance policies. Most of the insurance requirements in contracts do.  This IRMI article is a perfect example of what happens when the longest exclusions in General Liability insurance policies are ignored in the insurance specifications in contracts.

 

Indoor risks in commercial properties

 

Rational CPL Insurance Specifications

 

The illustrated claim in the article is for causing the death of invitees arising from bacteria in a hospital reception room. The cause of death was not medical malpractice. It was caused by poor facility housekeeping in a common area.   

With a qualified preplaced emergency response plan, a facility can qualify for affordable environmental insurance designed for indoor environmental hazards. The ARMR HPR Environmental Insurance product has been specifically designed to integrate water intrusion Emergency Response Plans and customized environmental insurance coverage for commercial buildings. 

 

ARMR HPR 3.0 The ONLY insurance solution for medical waste and facilities

Biggest Risks in Health Care and virtually ALL Commercial Buildings

  1. Water intrusion events from inside the building,
  2. The effects of Fungi and Bacteria exclusions in property and liability insurance policies.

Losses from waste management practices come in as a distant 3rd for frequency and severity!

Environmental Risks in Health Care Facilities can be Financed!

ARMR HPR 3.0tm!

Call 877-735-0800

Resources 

Environmental Insurance Library. Over 30 years of articles on environmental insurance written by the industry’s leaders. From content focused on Fire and Water Restoration Contractors, Mergers and Acquisitions, Farms, Commerical Properties, Developers, Underground and Above ground Storage tanks, and Municipalities to Superfund sites, this is the industry’s most accredited library.

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