Expert Witness in Hospital Construction
Empire Projects, Inc., through its principal William N. Bernstein, AIA, has provided expert witness services in matters involving the construction, renovation, and project management of hospitals, including acute-care hospitals, specialty hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, and hospital-based outpatient departments. Attorneys litigating cases that involve construction defects, scheduling and delay claims affecting bed-tower openings and department activations, change order disputes, contractor and subcontractor performance issues, project management failures, cost overruns and budget disputes, payment disputes and mechanic’s liens, contract administration and interpretation, means and methods, construction safety, infection-control and ICRA failures during phased construction in operating hospitals, interim life-safety measures (ILSM) compliance, operating room and procedure room design and air-handling problems, isolation room and protective environment failures, medical gas and emergency power problems, sterile processing workflow defects, fire safety and egress under healthcare occupancy classifications, accessibility violations, licensing and certificate-of-need issues, occupied-renovation and phased-activation problems, and other claims related to hospital construction require an expert witness who understands both the applicable building codes and standards and the practical realities of how hospital construction projects are actually managed, sequenced, and built.
About Hospital Construction
Hospital construction and renovation encompasses some of the most complex projects in the built environment, including ground-up new hospital construction, bed-tower and patient-tower expansions, new emergency department and intensive care unit construction, surgical suite renovations and additions, imaging and interventional suite construction, sterile processing department renovations, central plant and infrastructure upgrades, laboratory and pharmacy renovations, behavioral health unit construction, and the wide array of clinical, diagnostic, treatment, and support spaces that serve them. Nearly all hospital construction work occurs in operating facilities where patient care, including critical and emergency care, must continue uninterrupted; where infection-control risk assessment (ICRA) and interim life-safety measures (ILSM) must be planned, executed, and maintained throughout the project; where construction phasing, swing space, and temporary services must be carefully coordinated; and where the work must be coordinated with clinical operations, infection prevention, clinical engineering, environmental services, security, and facilities staff. The project management challenges of hospital construction are exceptional, and litigation in this area frequently arises from project-management failures as much as from technical defects.
The construction and renovation of hospitals is governed by a complex framework of building codes, regulations, and industry standards, including the applicable building code (for example, in New York City, the New York City Building Code), the International Building Code, ICC A117.1, NFPA 101 Life Safety Code, NFPA 99 Health Care Facilities Code, ASHRAE 170 ventilation standards, ADA requirements, the FGI Guidelines for Design and Construction of Hospitals, CMS Conditions of Participation, Joint Commission, DNV, and other accreditation standards, AAMI ST79 standards for sterile processing, and state and local department of health requirements such as those administered, in New York, by NYSDOH (including Article 28 licensure requirements). In addition, hospital projects are governed by the prime contract and subcontracts, institutional procurement and approval procedures, and any applicable certificate-of-need approvals. Hospital construction projects are typically subject to substantial insurance requirements, indemnification obligations, and bonding requirements that materially affect how risk is allocated and how disputes are resolved.
Disputes commonly arise over construction defects affecting building envelopes, interior finishes, and specialty clinical spaces; infection-control failures and ICRA non-compliance during phased construction in operating hospitals; ILSM failures and life-safety code violations during construction; operating room, procedure room, isolation room, and protective environment air-handling, pressurization, humidity, and temperature control problems; failures of medical gas, vacuum, WAGD, and emergency power systems; sterile processing workflow defects; non-compliant accessibility features; inadequate fire-rated assemblies and egress; scheduling and delay claims affecting department openings and accreditation surveys; change order disputes; contractor and subcontractor performance issues; cost overruns; payment disputes, mechanic’s liens, and lien-law compliance; licensing and certificate-of-need disputes; construction safety incidents; and disputes arising from phased construction and occupied-hospital renovation. Responsibility for these issues is shared, in different ways, among the hospital operator, the construction manager or general contractor, subcontractors, the design professionals, infection-prevention and clinical-engineering staff, regulatory and accreditation consultants, and the party responsible for ongoing maintenance, and litigation in this area frequently turns on the allocation of responsibility for project management decisions, construction means and methods, and post-occupancy performance.
Expert Witness Services Related to Hospital Construction
Expert witness services in hospital construction matters typically include a careful review of the project documents (drawings, specifications, submittals, RFIs, change orders, schedules and schedule updates including phasing plans, daily reports, meeting minutes, payment applications, permits and sign-offs, ICRA plans, ILSM plans, department of health filings and approvals, certificate-of-need approvals, accreditation survey reports, commissioning reports, operating room and isolation room air balance reports, lien waivers, punch lists, certificates of occupancy, and as-built conditions), a site survey to measure and document the conditions at issue, comparison of those conditions against the applicable building codes, life safety codes, healthcare facility guidelines, accessibility standards, contract requirements, and the standard of care applicable to hospital construction project management, review of construction administration and project-management records, and the preparation of clear, well-supported opinions regarding the cause of the defect, delay, or failure, the responsibility of the various parties, and the standard of care applicable to the construction, project management, and post-occupancy maintenance of hospitals.
An effective hospital construction expert witness must be able to explain technical and project-management issues — construction sequencing, phasing, and scheduling in operating hospitals, change order management, contract interpretation, construction means and methods, ICRA and ILSM compliance, operating room and isolation room air-handling and pressurization, medical gas and emergency power, sterile processing workflow, building envelope detailing, egress under healthcare occupancy classifications, accessibility, occupied-hospital construction protocols, regulatory and accreditation compliance, construction safety, code compliance, and the allocation of responsibility among hospital operator, construction manager, general contractor, subcontractors, and design professionals — in plain language to judges, juries, arbitrators, and mediators, and must have the credentials, written record, and courtroom-ready communication skills to render credible opinions.
Mr. Bernstein is a Yale-trained, NCARB-certified, LEED-accredited, registered architect. He has expertise in construction project management, architectural design, and engineering design as the founder/owner of a construction project management firm, Empire Projects, Inc. (2003-Present), and as the founder/owner of an architectural firm, Bernstein & Associates, Architects (1990-present). He has been the expert witness (as of May 2026) on (40) cases involving design and construction (2006-present) across the United States and Internationally.
Contact
Please contact Empire Projects, Inc., for expert witness services related to hospital construction, hospital renovation, and the project management of hospitals.