Current through Reg. 50, No. 187; September 24, 2024
(1) No construction work, including
demolition, shall be started until prior written approval has been given by the
Office of Plans and Construction. This includes all construction of new
facilities and any and all additions, modifications, renovations, or
refurbishment of the site, building, equipment or systems of all existing
facilities. Approval to start construction will be granted by the Agency when
the design complies with all applicable codes and standards as evidenced by a
thorough examination of the documents submitted to the Agency as required for
Stage III construction documents.
(2) Approval to start construction limited to
demolition, site work, foundation, and building structural frame may be
obtained prior to the approval of Stage III construction documents when the
following is submitted for review and approval:
(a) A Preliminary Stage II approval letter
from the Office of Plans and Construction granted by the Agency when the design
complies with applicable life safety code requirements, flood requirements and
the layout will accommodate all required functional spaces as evidenced by a
thorough examination of the documents submitted to the Agency as required in
this rule for Stage II preliminary plans.
(b) Construction documents, specifications
and construction details for all work to be undertaken.
(c) A letter from the facility holding the
agency harmless for any changes that may occur to the project as a result of
the final construction document review.
(d) An infection control risk assessment
(ICRA) and a life safety plan indicating temporary egress and detailed phasing
plans indicating how the area(s) to be demolished or constructed is to be
separated from all occupied areas shall be submitted when demolition or
construction in and around occupied buildings is to be undertaken. Submissions
that fail to provide an ICRA or depict the safety measures prescribed by the
ICRA will not be approved.
(3) Construction must commence within 12
months of receiving approval from the Office of Plans and Construction to begin
construction. Once construction begins construction activities should be
continuous until the completion of the project. Failure to commence
construction within 12 months of plan approval or periods of construction
inactivity exceeding 12 months following commencement of construction will
result in termination of the project. Restarting a terminated project will
require resubmission of the construction documents accompanied by a new plan
review application and will be subject to all fees prescribed by Section
395.0163, F.S. Projects which
have not received approval to begin construction will be considered abandoned
following 12 months of inactivity and the project will be terminated.
(4) When construction is planned, either for
new buildings or additions, alterations or renovations to existing buildings,
the plans and specifications shall be prepared and submitted to the Office of
Plans and Construction for approval by the appropriate Florida-registered
design professionals as required by the Florida Building Code, Chapters 471,
and 481, F.S. All architecture or engineering firms not practicing as a sole
proprietor shall also be registered as an architecture or engineering firm with
the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation.
(5) The initial submission of plans to the
Office of Plans and Construction for any new project shall include a completed
Application for Plan Review, AHCA Form 3500-0011, June 2014, incorporated by
reference and available at
https://www.flrules.org/Gateway/reference.asp?No=Ref-05456,
and a valid Certificate of Need if required by the agency. This information
shall accompany the initial submission. Projects requiring a Certificate of
Need will not be approved to begin construction without a valid Certificate of
Need. Applications for Plan Review are available from the Agency for Health
Care Administration, Office of Plans and Construction, 2727 Mahan Drive, Mail
Stop #24, Tallahassee, Florida 32308, or at the web address at:
http://ahca.myflorida.com/MCHQ/HQALicensureForms/index.shtml
(6) Plans and specifications submitted for
review shall be subject to plan review fees prescribed by Section
395.0163, F.S. All fees shall be
payable to the Agency for Health Care Administration and shall annotate the
Office of Plans and Construction and the facility log number. Fees are not
refundable.
(7) Plans and
specifications may be submitted for review at any of the three stages of
development described in this rule.
(8) For each stage of submission, a program
or scope of work shall be submitted. It shall consist of a detailed written
description of all contemplated work and any required phasing and shall
identify the types of medical services to be provided.
(9) For projects involving only equipment
changes or system renovations, only Stage III, construction documents will be
accepted. These documents shall include the following:
(a) Life safety plans showing the fire/smoke
compartments in the area of renovation.
(b) Detailed phasing plans indicating how the
new work will be separated from all occupied areas.
(c) Engineering plans and specifications for
all of the required work.
(10) Stage I, Schematic Plans.
(a) The following shall be incorporated into
the schematic plans:
1. Single-line drawings
of each floor that indicates the relationship of the various activities or
services to each other and the room arrangement in each.
2. The function of each room or space shall
be noted in or near the room or space.
3. The proposed roads and walkways, service
and entrance courts, parking, and orientation shown on either a small plot plan
or on the first floor plan.
4. A
simple cross-section diagram showing the anticipated construction.
5. A schematic life safety plan showing smoke
and fire compartments, exits, exit passageways and gross areas of required
smoke and fire compartments.
6.
Indicate which areas are sprinklered, both new and
existing.
(b) If the
proposed construction is an addition or is otherwise related to existing
buildings on the site, the schematic plans shall show the facilities and
general arrangement of those buildings.
(c) If the project involves increasing,
decreasing, relocating or transferring licensed beds, a schedule showing the
total number of beds, types of bedrooms and types of ancillary spaces must be
provided.
(11) Stage II,
Preliminary Plans.
The following shall be incorporated into the preliminary
plans.
(a) A Vicinity Map. For new
ambulatory surgical center construction, provide a vicinity map showing the
major local highway intersections.
(b) Site Development Plans.
(c) Plans depicting existing grades and
proposed improvements.
(d) Building
location dimensions.
(e) Location
of the fire protection services water source to the building.
(f) Architectural Plans.
1. Floor plans, 1/8-inch scale minimum,
showing door swings, windows, case work and mill work, fixed equipment and
plumbing fixtures. Indicate the function of each space.
2. Typical large-scale interior and exterior
wall sections to include typical rated fire and fire/smoke partitions and a
typical corridor partition.
3. All
exterior building elevations.
(g) Equipment which is not included in the
construction contract that requires mechanical or electrical service
connections or construction modifications shall be identified to assure
coordination with the architectural, mechanical and electrical phases of
construction.
(h) If the project is
located in an occupied facility, preliminary phasing plans indicating how the
project is to be separated from all occupied areas.
(i) Life Safety Plans.
1. Life safety plans must include the
following:
a. Single-sheet floor plans
depicting required fire and smoke compartmentation, all means of egress and all
exit signs. If smoke compartmentation is required, depict and provide the
dimension for the longest path of travel in each smoke compartment to the
door(s) accessing the nearest adjoining smoke compartment, calculate the total
area of the smoke compartment in square feet, and tabulate exit
inches.
b. All sprinklered
areas.
c. All fire
extinguishers.
d. All fire alarm
devices and pull station locations.
2. If the project is an addition, or
conversion of an existing building, fully developed life safety plans must be
submitted.
3. If the project is a
renovation in an existing building, life safety plans of the floor being
renovated and the required exit egress floor(s) must be submitted.
4. When demolition or construction in and
around occupied buildings will be undertaken, a life safety plan indicating
temporary egress, and detailed phasing plans indicating how the area(s) to be
demolished or constructed will be separated from all occupied areas must be
submitted.
(j) Mechanical
Engineering Plans.
1. Single-sheet floor plans
with a one-line diagram of the ventilating system with relative pressures of
each space. Provide a written description and drawings of the anticipated smoke
control system, passive or active, and a sequence of operation correlated with
the life safety plans.
2. The
general location of all fire and smoke dampers, all duct smoke detectors and
fire stats.
3. If the building is
equipped with fire sprinklers, indicate the location of the sprinkler system
risers and the point of connection for the fire sprinkler system. State the
method of design for the existing and new fire sprinkler systems.
4. The locations of all plumbing fixtures and
other items of equipment requiring plumbing services and/or gas
services.
5. The locations of any
fume, radiological or chemical hoods.
6. The locations of all medical gas outlets,
piping distribution risers, terminals, alarm panel(s), low pressure emergency
oxygen connection, isolation/zone valve(s), and gas source
location(s).
7. The locations and
relative size of major items of mechanical equipment such as chillers, air
handling units, fire pumps, medical gas storage, boilers, vacuum pumps, air
compressors and fuel storage vessels.
8. The locations of hazardous areas and the
volume of products to be contained therein.
9. The location of fire pump, stand pipes,
and sprinkler riser(s).
(k) Electrical Engineering Drawings.
1. A one-line diagram of normal and essential
electrical power systems showing service transformers and entrances,
switchboards, transfer switches, distribution feeders and over-current devices,
panel boards and step-down transformers. The diagram shall include a
preliminary listing and description of new and existing, normal and emergency
loads, preliminary estimates of available short-circuit current at all new
equipment and existing equipment serving any new equipment, short-circuit and
withstand ratings of existing equipment serving new loads and any new or
revised grounding requirements.
2.
Show fire alarm zones and correlate with the life safety
plan.
(l) Outline
Specifications. Outline specifications must include a general description of
the construction, including construction classification and ratings of
components, interior finishes, general types and locations of acoustical
material, floor coverings, ventilating equipment, plumbing fixtures, fire
protection equipment, medical gas equipment and electrical equipment.
(m) Whenever an existing building is to be
converted to a health care facility, the general layout of spaces of the
existing structure shall be submitted with the preliminary plans for the
proposed facility.
(n) Whenever an
addition, alteration, renovation or remodeling to an existing facility is
proposed, the general layout of spaces of the existing facility shall be
submitted with the preliminary plans.
(12) Stage III, Construction Documents.
The Stage III, construction documents shall be an extension
of the Stage II, preliminary plan submission and shall provide a complete
description of the contemplated construction. Construction documents shall be
signed, sealed and dated and submitted for written approval to the Office of
Plans and Construction by a Florida-registered architect and Florida-registered
professional engineer. These documents shall consist of work related to civil,
structural, mechanical, and electrical engineering, fire protection, lightning
protection, landscape architecture and all architectural work. In addition to
the requirements for Stage II submission, the following shall be incorporated
into the construction documents:
(a)
Site and civil engineering plans indicating building and site elevations, site
utilities, paving plans, grading and drainage plans and details, locations of
the two fire hydrants utilized to perform the water supply flow test, and
landscaping plans.
(b) Life safety
plans for the entire project. Projects located on floors above or below the
exit discharge level must also include life safety plans for the exit discharge
serving the project area.
(c)
Architectural Plans.
1. Typical large-scale
details of all typical interior and exterior walls and smoke walls, horizontal
exits and exit passageways.
2.
Comprehensive ceiling plans that show all utilities, lighting fixtures, smoke
detectors, ventilation devices, sprinkler head locations and fire-rated ceiling
suspension member locations where applicable.
3. Floor/ceiling and roof/ceiling assembly
descriptions for all conditions.
4.
Details and other instructions to the contractor on the construction documents
describing the techniques to be used to seal floor construction penetrations
necessary to prevent smoke migration from floor to floor during a
fire.
(d) Structural
engineering plans, schedules and details.
(e) Mechanical engineering plans including
fire and smoke control plans. Include all equipment that requires mechanical
utilities. Provide a clear and concise narrative control
sequence of operations for each item of mechanical equipment including but not
limited to air conditioning, heating, ventilation, medical gas, plumbing, and
fire protection and any interconnection of the equipment of the systems.
Mechanical engineering drawings shall depict completely the systems to be
utilized, whether new or existing, from the point of system origination to
termination. Provide a tabular schedule giving the required air flow (as
computed from the information contained on the ventilation rate table) in cubic
feet per minute (cfm) for supply, return, exhaust, outdoor, and ventilation air
for each space, as applicable, shown on the architectural documents. The
schedule shall also contain the HVAC system design air flow rates and the
resulting space relative pressures. The schedule or portion of the schedule as
applicable shall be placed on each floor plan drawing sheet containing the
spaces depicted on the drawing.
(f)
Fire protection system layout documents as defined by the Department of
Business and Professional Regulation in Rule
61G15-32.002, F.A.C., where
applicable, that shall include the existing system as necessary to define the
new work. These documents shall be signed and sealed by a Florida-registered
professional engineer.
(g)
Electrical engineering plans describing complete power, lighting, alarm,
communications and lightning protection systems and power system
study.
(h) A power study that shall
include a fault study complete with calculations to demonstrate that
over-current devices, transfer switches, switchboards, panel boards, motor
controls, transformers and feeders are adequately sized to safely withstand
available phase-to-phase and phase-to-ground faults. The study shall also
include an analysis of generator performance under fault conditions and a
coordination study resulting in the tabulation of settings for all over-current
device adjustable trips, time delays, relays and ground fault coordination.
This must be provided for all new equipment and existing equipment serving any
new equipment. Power studies for renovations of existing distribution systems
shall include only new equipment and existing equipment upstream to the normal
and emergency sources of the new equipment. Renovations involving only branch
circuit panel boards without modifications to the feeder do not require a full
power study; instead, the power study shall be limited to the calculation of
new and existing loads of the branch circuit panel.
(13) A complete set of specifications for all
work to be undertaken.
(a) All project
required contractor supplied testing and/or certification reports shall be
submitted in writing, on standard forms, reviewed and accepted by the Engineer
of Record prior to presenting to the agency for review.
(b) The specifications shall require a
performance verification test and balance air quantity values report with the
specified air filters installed for each air handling unit system operating in
the minimum pressure drop condition (clean filter state) and at the maximum
pressure drop condition (dirty filter state).
(14) All construction documents shall be
coordinated to provide consistency of design intent throughout the documents
and phasing plans shall be clear and provide continuity of required services.
It is specifically required that in the case of additions to existing
institutions, the mechanical and electrical, especially existing essential
electrical systems and all other pertinent conditions shall be a part of this
submission.
(a) All subsequent addenda, change
orders, field orders and other documents altering the above shall also be
signed, sealed and dated and submitted in advance to the Office of Plans and
Construction for review. The Agency will either approve or disapprove the
submission based on compliance with all applicable codes and standards and
shall provide a listing of deficiencies in writing.
(b) All submissions will be acted upon by the
agency within 60 days of the receipt of properly executed construction
documents and the initial payment of the plan review fee. The Agency will
either approve or disapprove the submission and shall provide a listing of
deficiencies in writing. All deficiencies noted by the agency must be
satisfactorily corrected before final approval will be provided from the
Agency.
(15) Additions or
revisions that increase the scope of the project work greater than fifty
percent or change the original scope of the project more than fifty percent
will be required to be submitted as a new project.
(16) Record Drawings. Within 60 days after
final approval of the project has been obtained from the agency, the Office of
Plans and Construction shall be provided with a complete set of legible record
drawings showing all of the construction, fixed equipment and the mechanical
and electrical systems as installed. These drawings shall include the life
safety plans. Record drawings may be submitted electronically in Portable
Document Format (PDF). If record drawings are not received within this time
frame specified in this section, only the construction document and project
file will be retained.
Rulemaking Authority 395.1055 FS. Law Implemented 395.0163,
471.025, 481.221, 553.73, 633.033 FS.
New 6-14-78, Formerly 10D-30.21, Amended 2-3-88, 5-6-92,
Formerly 10D-30.021, Amended 11-12-96,
7-9-15.
