Hospital Affected by Water Damage in Dallas

1/9/2019 (Permalink)

SERVPRO North Irving is a leader in the disaster restoration industry. We have restored thousands of residential and commercial properties in Dallas.

24-hour Emergency Response in Dallas

When there is water damage in DFW, we are ready to respond 24 hours a day.  The last place that we like hearing about having water damage is a hospital.  When we received a call about a flooded hospital with an emergency water damage in Dallas, we knew we needed to work as fast as possible.

Hospitals cannot be shut down.  When they have an emergency, we’ll help them no matter what time of day it is.  For this hospital, their water damage happened in the middle of the night.

Within 30 minutes of their phone call, a team of our Dallas restoration managers were on site inspecting the water damage.  Minutes later, our water remediation technicians arrived and began to execute the managers' water damage restoration plan.

Multistory Water Damage Inspection

The water damage this hospital experienced happened across a portion of two different floors.  When a pipe burst on the upper floor, it flooded the hallways and rooms. The water also found its way down to the floor directly underneath it by escaping through the ceiling.  Our restoration managers were you able to find exactly where the water traveled to by using thermal imaging cameras.

After our technicians extracted all of the water from the flooring, walls, and ceiling, it was time to set up a drying plan.  We needed a drying plan that achieved our goal to open the hospital rooms for patient care as quickly as possible.

Water Classification and Category

There are three different water classifications and categories that we use in the restoration industry.  Classifying water helps us determine the safest way to handle the damage.

For this hospital, we were lucky to find that the water was Category 1 which meant it was clean. Clean water can be removed quickly because the areas do not have to be sanitized.

Water Extraction

It took just a few hours for our technicians to extract all of the water from the flooded hospital floors.  Although the water was Category 1, our technicians still sanitized every area the water touched due to the nature of this environment needing to be as sanitary as possible.

Proving Sanitation with TPA Testing

It's never enough to apply a sanitizer onto an area and hope that it does its job correctly.  Chemicals need a specific dwell time to work effectively. It’s important for us to know that the job was done properly, especially in an environment where patient safety is the main concern.

Our office uses TPA testing to make sure that our sanitation efforts have worked.  TPA stands for adenosine triphosphate. We test TPA levels on surfaces to scientifically validate the results of our cleaning.

Our cleaning technicians tested all the areas that we sanitized by using TPA reader.  Any areas that scored higher than a zero for TPA were immediately cleaned again. It was only when areas tested zero that anyone was allowed back into that area.  

A zero score on a TPA test means it is food-grade safe.  This means that the area is clean enough to eat from without the risk of biological hazard.

Dehumidification and a Commercial Desiccant

When we are drying a structure after water damage, we make sure everything is dried properly.  A correctly dried structure helps avoid mold and permanent damage. In a small water damage, a few professional dehumidifiers is usually enough to correctly dry the structure.  In a large loss like this hopsital, the use of a commercial desiccant is needed.

A desiccant is a very large and specialized dehumidifier that is a specially made for large areas. Our office temporarily installed a desiccant to dry the structure’s vast air space.  

Water Damaged Paper Health Records

When the water damage occurred, a significant amount of water found its way into one of the hospitals records room.  In a matter of just minutes, thousands of patient files were wet. Due to the sensitive nature of these files and healthcare privacy laws, this paperwork needed to be saved.

There are many water restoration companies in DFW, but few have the capability to save damaged paperwork.  We knew from other water damages in schools and libraries how to respond to the hospital’s need to salvage important paperwork.  We also knew we had to act quickly to save the paperwork’s integrity. Before the paper is permanently damaged we brought a refrigerated truck and loaded sealed boxes of sensitive paperwork into it.  Inside the truck, the boxes of papers were quickly frozen. Once the truck was loaded, it immediately left to the SERVPRO sublimation chamber where the documents underwent restoration services.

Saving Water Damaged Paper with Sublimation

The SERVPRO sublimation chamber is state-of-the-art equipment created to save water-damaged paperwork.

The first step is to freeze the paperwork as quickly as possible.  The freezing stops the paper from falling apart. The paperwork needs to stay frozen until the sublimation process can begin.  This is why we immediately freeze paperwork and keep it a frozen state as it travels to our chamber.

Sublimation is the process where water goes from a frozen state directly to air.  Usually, the stages of water mean that it will go from frozen to liquid to air. Sublimation skips the liquid part which makes it possible for water damaged paper to be saved.  The paper goes directly from a frozen state to dry.

Sublimation is a very sophisticated process that very few disaster restoration companies in the nation can accomplish.  With the use of the SERVPRO sublimation chamber, this hospital was able to save all its patient paperwork.

After the sublimation was done, the documentation was once again loaded onto a truck and delivered back to the hospital.

Commercial Property Insurance

Our office administrators were able to contact the hospital's insurance company within just a few minutes of their water damage happening.  We were able to establish the hospital’s claim and get their entire project approved within a few hours.

There are many water removal companies in DFW.  Our franchise has over 30 years of water restoration in Dallas.  We’ve restored thousands of properties, and we work with all insurance companies to handle commercial water removal in Dallas.  Trust us to help you. When properties need Dallas water damage restoration, we’re their first call. Our franchise has the expertise to work with insurance adjusters and make sure that water damage claims are processed correctly and quickly.  We are one of the few full-service water damage repair companies available. We can help from start to end -- from emergency water removal to construction. If any commercial mold remediation is needed, we’re licensed for that, too.

Leader in Water Damage Restoration in Dallas

SERVPRO of North Irving is a trusted fire and water damage restoration company in Dallas, TX.  We have the expertise and experience to properly restore all properties needing water mitigation in Dallas.  We perform residential and commercial restoration in Dallas. Our SERVPRO franchise in Dallas also has a Texas Mold Remediation Contractor License. We offer free mold inspections in Dallas and all North Texas. You can trust us to handle all your residential and commercial restoration and cleaning service needs.

Our crews are available dispatch for 24 hour emergencies every day of the year. We can be reached 24/7 at (972) 986-7677.  Call us any time!

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