Expert Witness in Hospitals 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 and related properties, including general acute-care hospitals, specialty hospitals, academic medical centers, children’s hospitals, and critical access hospitals. Attorneys litigating cases that involve the construction, renovation, or project management of these facilities will need an expert witness such as William N. Bernstein, AIA, to address: construction defects, scheduling and delay claims, 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 occupied hospitals, ILSM compliance failures, operating-room and procedure-suite construction and air-handling installation problems, medical gas and emergency power installation problems, isolation and pressurization installation failures, imaging-suite shielding and structural installation problems, accessibility violations, fire safety and egress under institutional occupancy classifications, water infiltration and building envelope failures, phased-construction and occupied-renovation disputes, and other claims related to hospitals construction. Mr. Bernstein is an expert witness who understands both the applicable codes, standards, and contractual frameworks and the practical realities of how hospitals construction and renovation projects are managed and executed in the field.
About Hospitals Construction
Hospitals construction and renovation encompasses a wide range of inpatient and acute-care building types, including general acute-care hospitals, specialty hospitals (orthopedic, cardiac, women’s and children’s, rehabilitation), academic medical centers, critical access hospitals, and the support infrastructure that serves them, including emergency departments, operating-room suites, intensive care units, patient-care floors, imaging and procedure suites, laboratories, central sterile and pharmacy facilities, kitchens and dining, materials management, and central plant facilities. Hospitals construction is among the most complex and risk-laden construction work because nearly all of it occurs in occupied 24/7 facilities, with continuous patient operations, infection-control requirements, life-safety constraints, and a regulatory overlay that few other building types share.
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 standards, and state department of health requirements such as those administered, in New York, by NYSDOH. In addition, hospitals construction projects are governed by private agreements — the prime contract and subcontracts, joint commissioning agreements with research, academic, and clinical partners, and institutional procurement and approval procedures. These projects are also typically subject to insurance requirements, indemnification obligations, and bonding requirements that materially affect how risk is allocated and how disputes are resolved.
Disputes in hospitals construction commonly arise over scheduling and delay claims, particularly when occupied phased work disrupts surgical schedules, ED throughput, or patient transfers; change order disputes driven by department of health review, ICRA and ILSM issues, late-discovered field conditions in existing hospitals, and owner-directed scope changes; cost overruns and budget disputes; payment disputes and mechanic’s liens; contractor and subcontractor performance and coordination failures, particularly among MEP, medical gas, fire alarm, low-voltage, and architectural trades whose work must be carefully sequenced and commissioned in occupied healthcare environments; ICRA and ILSM non-compliance during construction, including breaches of dust containment, negative-air containment, and barrier integrity; construction defects affecting operating-room air-handling, pressurization, humidity, and temperature control; isolation room construction and pressurization failures; installation defects in medical gas, vacuum, WAGD, and emergency power systems; imaging suite shielding and structural installation defects; accessibility and fire-safety construction defects; building envelope and water-infiltration failures; commissioning and balancing failures; and disputes arising from phased construction and occupied renovation. Responsibility for these issues is allocated, in different ways, among the hospital, the contractor, subcontractors and specialty vendors, the construction manager or owner’s representative, the design professional, infection-prevention and clinical staff, and the party responsible for ongoing maintenance, and litigation in this area frequently turns on the allocation of responsibility for construction means and methods, sequencing, supervision, quality control, commissioning, and post-occupancy maintenance.
Expert Witness Services Related to Hospitals Construction
Expert witness services in hospitals construction matters typically include a careful review of the project documents (drawings, specifications, submittals, RFIs, change orders, schedules and schedule updates, daily reports, meeting minutes, pay applications, lien waivers, permits, certificates of occupancy, ICRA plans, ILSM plans, OR air balance reports, isolation-room test and balance reports, commissioning reports, department of health filings, commissioning reports, punch lists, 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 documents, and industry standards of care for construction and project management, review of construction administration records and maintenance histories, and the preparation of clear, well-supported opinions regarding causation, responsibility, the standard of care applicable to hospitals construction, and the quantification of delay, disruption, and damages.
An effective hospitals construction expert witness must be able to explain technical and project-management issues — construction sequencing and scheduling in occupied 24/7 hospital projects, change order management, contract interpretation (including AIA-form contracts and ConsensusDocs), construction means and methods, ICRA and ILSM implementation, operating-room and procedure-suite construction and air-handling installation, isolation-room construction and pressurization, medical gas and emergency power installation, imaging-suite shielding and structural installation, accessibility installation, fire safety and egress construction under institutional occupancy classifications, construction safety, code compliance, commissioning, and the allocation of responsibility among owner, contractor, subcontractors, construction manager, design professionals, and specialty vendors — 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 architectural design, engineering design, and construction 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 hospitals construction.