Puget Sound Chapter Education - Reducing DOH Review Delays: What Healthcare Facilities Can Control

Description

One of the biggest challenges facilities managers face on small to mid-size healthcare renovations isn’t construction—it’s navigating Department of Health (DOH) review timelines. This session focuses on what owners and facilities teams can actually control to help streamline the DOH review process. Through a candid discussion with a DOH representative, healthcare architect, and facilities manager, we’ll explore how early scope definition, complete life-safety documentation, and disciplined coordination can significantly reduce review cycles, comments, and re-submittals. 

Attendees will leave with practical strategies to improve predictability, minimize delays, and keep renovation projects moving forward in occupied healthcare environments. At this event, you will learn: 

• Clarity upfront shortens review time. Well-defined, locked scopes and clear project classification (minor vs. major alteration) reduce DOH questions and re-review cycles.
• Narratives matter as much as drawings. Complete, coordinated ICRA, ILSM, and life-safety narratives—aligned with phasing plans—are critical to avoiding DOH delays.
• Early DOH engagement pays dividends. Pre-submittal conversations can align expectations, confirm assumptions, and prevent avoidable comments during formal review. 

Presenters: 

• Moderator: Jimmy Craig, Critical Environments Division Manager, JTM Construction
• Ashlee Washington, NCIDQ, Principal, Ankrom Moisan 
• Nancy Brown, Plan Reviewer, Washington State Department of Health 
• Neil Burgheimer, MBA, CHFM, Manager of Facilities, Engineering, and Planning Design & Construction, Overlake Medical Center