I presented to the Florida Hospital sanitarian group several years ago. The presentation had shown the group pictures of actual grease fires, the extreme speed they can travel, and the destruction caused. A question was posed to the entire group. How many patients could they evacuate in the event of a grease exhaust fire? The answers were rather shocking with most agreeing that less than 15% of their patients could be evacuated to clear a fast moving grease fire. The emergency plans were for natural disasters like hurricanes, but did not account for something as fast moving and instantaneous as a grease fire. I then asked how they chose their grease exhaust cleaning companies. The overwhelming answer was "low bid" with no other qualifications other than they carry insurance and possibly have some references. I also asked how they document the cleanings and what accountability measures were in place. There were none in any of the hospitals at that time. The moral of the story is that the administrators were putting their employees in the position to choose who to save in the event of a grease fire in the hospital. The good news is that several larger institutions changes their practices after the presentation. They are now required pictures, certification, cleanings done to both the NFPA96 and the IKECA-ANSI C-10 standards, plus other accountability measures.
Unfortunately, we still see issues out there. Many hospitals simply don't think there is enough grease buildup to be an issue. We now know that as little as 2000 microns or 2 millimeters of grease can carry the fore throughout the system. Below are recent pictures from a large regional hospital that were just taken this past month. As one can see, the grease buildup is extreme and far in excess of 2000 microns which debunks the idea that hospital systems do not have much grease buildup. The hospital had a full picture program in place from a well known national company. Obviously they were not receiving all of the pictures of inside the exhaust system. The job reports mentioned nothing about these badly missed area. We can see the lines of clean duct and the extreme grease buildup where the previous cleanings(and very recent cleaning) stopped. We know realize that we all must increase our monitoring of these hospital systems and hold all KEC vendor fully accountable for their work.
