Hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, nursing homes, physical therapy centers, and other types of health care facilities and medical offices face many challenges when it comes to caring for their patients, staff, and visitors. Health care facility administrators must make numerous critical decisions almost every day, so it is understandable that the condition of the asphalt pavement in their parking lots, walkways, and patient loading and unloading areas may not always be foremost in their thoughts. However, neglected pavements can result in some potentially serious consequences.
Why Health Care Facilities Have Unique Needs for Asphalt Maintenance
What Are Some Possible Consequences of Poor Pavement Maintenance?
Health care facilities frequently treat patients who have mobility issues or who are in pain. No caring medical professional would ever want to inflict additional suffering on a patient. However, potholes, cracks, and uneven pavements can cause a patient to trip and fall, potentially resulting in a more severe injury than the condition that led the patient to seek help at the facility.
Hospitals, nursing homes, and many other facilities receive many patients by ambulance. Some of these patients need immediate attention, so the ambulance attendants must rush to get the patients inside so that the facility’s medical staff can treat them. However, even if the attendants are conducting a routine transfer, ambulance personnel deserve safe pavements on which to work. Poorly maintained pavements can inflict injuries on ambulance drivers and attendants as well as the patients they are transporting.
Poorly maintained asphalt pavement can also pose a hazard to people visiting or assisting patients. Even your own employees can twist an ankle in a pothole or suffer a serious injury if they trip and fall. The same is true for delivery drivers, vendors, and service technicians.
Vehicles can also suffer damage if you neglect your parking lot repair. Tire damage and damage to the vehicle’s suspension system can occur if the vehicle strikes a large or deep pothole. If you neglect your parking lot striping, drivers may not know where to park or how to do so correctly. As a result, the vehicles may suffer scratches or dents from neighboring cars.
If one of your employees suffers an injury, you could be facing a workers’ compensation claim. Other injured individuals could file lawsuits for their personal injuries. The owners of damaged vehicles could sue you for the cost of their repairs. Whether you choose to settle or fight a lawsuit in court, it will cost you or your insurance company money that you could use for other purposes.
Furthermore, most health care facilities are subject to more stringent requirements under the Americans with Disability Act than retailers, shopping centers, apartment complexes, and other types of businesses. The 2010 changes to the ADA could mean that you are no longer in compliance if you have not updated your layout and design in the intervening years. Reputable asphalt paving contractors remain current on all changes and revisions to the ADA to help their customers ensure compliance. Failure to comply can result in hefty fines that could impact your budget for other services.
It is also important to remember that professional asphalt maintenance of your pavement can increase its useful life, and it can help you avoid costly procedures to repair the pavement’s base or to replace patches of alligatored asphalt. It is also easier to budget for routine maintenance than to scramble to find the funds to replace an entire parking lot. Asphalt repairs are fast, resulting in minimal disruption to your operations. Furthermore, asphalt paving contractors know how to apply sealcoating, repair cracks, apply pavement markings, or even perform asphalt resurfacing in stages and at the best times to lessen any unavoidable disruption.
Trust the Experts at Alpha Paving
We count many hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, medical offices, outpatient surgery centers, and other health care facilities among our satisfied clients. Alpha Paving is a full-service paving company with a diverse customer base that includes major retailers, airports, counties and municipalities, shopping centers and malls, restaurants, apartment complexes, hotels, commercial property management firms, HOAs and subdivisions, educational institutions, manufacturing facilities, and religious institutions. Our services include parking lot repair, sealcoating, asphalt resurfacing, parking lot striping and pavement markings, speed bump installations, thermoplastic pavement markings, road construction, asphalt paving, concrete repairs and installation, and street maintenance. Our reputation and our references are impeccable. For a free quote, call 512-677-9001 or complete the request form online.
