Life Safety Protected Facilities (Design Manual 2015)  

Date: 
01-01-2015

This Manual contains the physical security standards for improving the protection of life-safety protected facilities of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Life-Safety Protected facilities are required to protect the life safety of the VA patients, staff, and visitors in case of an emergency. Although indispensable to the mission of VA, these facilities are not required to remain operational during a natural or manmade extreme event or a national emergency. Design and construction standards are provided for the physical security of new buildings, additions, and major alterations. In addition, standards are provided to improve the physical security for existing life-safety protected facilities.

The requirements of this manual are to be coordinated with all VA design and construction requirements for the mitigation of other hazards, such as earthquake and hurricane, in order to complete a multi-hazard approach to physical security planning, design, and construction. In addition, it is intended that the requirements of this manual be coordinated with the requirements of the Life Safety Code, NFPA 101.

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