It is no secret that today’s healthcare ecosystem is in lockstep with life safety code compliance. While life safety codes exist to ensure healthcare institutions provide the highest quality of care, achieving and maintaining it can be a daunting task. For one, life safety compliance constantly changes due to variations in code requirements and how authorities apply those requirements. This means life safety plans must be regularly updated. Secondly, many a time, the task falls to the facility managers who already have their hands full. And so, it becomes critical for healthcare facilities management teams to be proactive about compliance concerns since it can result in costly and devastating consequences otherwise. “This is where a company like ours can make all the difference. We are code experts. We understand all the codes, live and breathe it every day. We exist to help healthcare facilities establish, maintain, and successfully meet life safety standards for their patients and employees in a variety of work environments,” says Valeri Marks, president and CEO, Medical Technology Associates (MTA).

What sets the firm apart from other peers in the industry is their single-source approach to life safety’ compliance. This includes a wide array of compliance services and equipment backed by exceptional service, deep technical knowledge, and a robust technology platform. These cornerstones, coupled with MTA’s in-depth understanding of the codes, standards and governing bodies, are critical in assisting facilities with their compliance to NFPA99, USP 797 and 800, NSF, CETA, NIOSH, OSHA, FDA, and more.

Over three decades ago, Florida-based MTA ventured into the medical gas equipment market. Over time, the company grew tremendously and is now recognized as the leading national provider of life safety compliance solutions. As a single-source, one-stop shop resource, MTA’s wide array of life safety products and services spans medical gas services and equipment, environmental monitoring, and controlled environment testing for healthcare facilities, mechanical engineers, pharmacies, and laboratories across the U.S. and the Caribbean.

For hospitals, medical gas systems are, in a word, lifesaving. A key role of the healthcare facility manager is to ensure that their organization remains compliant with the use of medical gases, and that involves repair, maintenance, and inspections conducted by accredited personnel. “MTA’s decades of experience in life safety inspections and certification of medical gas systems have led to the careful development of numerous innovative testing programs to help in the regular maintenance and documentation of medical gas system requirements per the NFPA code,” says Valeri. MTA’s full suite of medical gas services encompasses compliance inspection, verification, and certification of vacuum pumps, medical air compressors, manifolds, alarms, zone valves, flow meters, and medical gas outlets. The team does quarterly and annual preventative maintenance on the equipment to prolong the life and safety of the systems

We offer badges that the staff wear to monitor exposure to toxic gases and vapors,” cites Valeri. In their third line of business, controlled environment testing, MTA focuses on pharmacies and labs and is at the forefront in cleanroom certification services and laboratory-controlled environment testing. Their offerings include certification of clean rooms and compounding hoods, viable air sampling, HEPA filter testing, decontamination services, and more. “Clean rooms, biological safety cabinets and laminar flow hoods are required to be tested every six months. We help organizations meet the USP 797 and 800 sterile compounding regulations for establishing and maintaining a safe, sterile environment to prepare patient-specific medications,” adds Valeri.

At the core of everything MTA does is a technology platform which includes scheduling, dispatching, customer reporting, asset inventory, and more. The compliance testing industry has historically been heavily paper-based. Even today, technicians employ paper forms for testing, with the data being manually keyed in to produce the customer’s report. Not only is the process time-consuming but also prone to errors. “We leverage our technology platform to equip our employees with tools to drive customer responsiveness, accuracy, and efficiency. We provide all of our technicians with laptops, iPads, iPhones, and state of the art testing equipment to deliver seamless services to customers in an efficient, accurate, and streamlined manner,” asserts Valeri. For example, customer reports are critical to identifying issues and providing the needed documentation when a governing agency arrives for inspection. MTA’s technology platform automates this process in the most accurate and timely manner, minimizing errors. Since the entire process is automated, it also allows for customization of reports to meet a facility’s needs.