Somerville Hospital
| Client |
Somerville Hospital,
Cambridge Health Alliance |
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| Project Cost |
| $1 million for new fire alarm system |
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Providing state-of-the-art fire protection and emergency response to urban hospital
Somerville Hospital, a member of the Cambridge Health Alliance, is a busy care center that serves the city’s 75,000 residents. Cambridge Health Alliance has been making investments to upgrade Somerville Hospital’s buildings and services. The Alliance wanted to upgrade its fire protection system. They called on Bent Electrical Contractors to recommend and install a new fire alarm system for four buildings that comprise Somerville Hospital’s campus.
The original fire alarm system was installed in the 1940s, and was in poor repair. To minimize any potential breakdown, Bent installed a more reliable, temporary fire alarm panel and worked with the hospital to design a new, state-of-the-art, fully addressable fire alarm system.
The system includes automatic voice evacuation/ messaging units, remote transponder panels that tie into a master system, and a network of thousands of devices, such as strobe lights, fire alarm pull/switch stations, automatic door alarms, smoke detectors, and sprinklers, throughout all four buildings.
Bent installed the $1 million system without disrupting the hospital staff, patients, and visitors.
Quick response keeps hospital in operation
When a water leak caused the hospital’s major motor control center to short circuit, Bent was called in to resolve the problem. The hospital needed a reliable power source to maintain critical operating room and intensive care unit functions.
Bent was called at 9:00 am on a Saturday morning (the weekend before Christmas) and responded within 30 minutes. After assessing the situation, Bent pulled together the resources and equipment needed and installed temporary motor controllers to get critical patient care equipment back up and running. By the end-of-the-day, all systems were restored. Bent’s fast response saved the hospital from relocating patients and delaying critical care services.
As a precautionary measure, Bent reviewed the condition of three other motor control centers and because of their age and condition, recommended and installed new state-of-the-art motor control centers and emergency MI power cables.
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