CON Process - Final - bLUE VERSION - Flipbook - Page 7
NYSCON
All CON information must be submitted online to NYSCON, and this program can only be
accessed by designated client staff or independent CON consultants. However, the
architectural review staff uses ProjNet. They post their questions regarding a project
there. The two platforms do not speak to each other. Therefore, we ask our clients to
name us in the Executive Summary as the architect so that BAER can assign the project
to us. That way, we can track the project, and we will have access to the questions
sooner. Otherwise, we must wait until the NYSCON user gets an official letter with
questions before they know there are questions for us.
Please note that clients may want all correspondence through them so that they can
control the process and nothing gets mixed. Because we do so many projects for our
clients, we typically develop a level of trust with their CON Reviewer that we will keep
them in the loop.
LIFE SAFETY CODE
All construction projects need to be reviewed under the
new construction requirements of the Life Safety Code.
Typically, Chapter 18 (Health Care), Chapter 20
(Ambulatory Care), and/or Chapter 38 (Business). The
Existing Building sections are only for an existing facility
that is not being altered (for Statement of Conditions)
building continuing its use.
For example, if a project was a physician’s office and
turned into an Article 28 Diagnostic and Treatment
Center, it is considered a new building. Suppose a
project renovates an existing Article 28 Diagnostic and Treatment Center (DT & C). In
that case, any new construction needs to meet the new section of LSC and anything that
isn’t affected must meet the existing section of the Code. In both cases, DOH will
require a look at the common part of the building to ensure egress from the space to
the exterior meets NFPA 101 and that any fire separations required by NFPA in the
common area meet NFPA 101. Although, this is debatable.
ARTICLE 28
Some clients think converting from a non‐article 28 DT&C into an Article 28 DT&C is
difficult. In the past, it certainly was. In the past, there were HVAC and egress
requirements that were more stringent for Article 28 than a physician’s office, so those
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