Infection Prevention Meets Infrastructure: Executing Live-Line Work Safely
Replacing sanitary stacks piping in a hospital is never a simple project. Unlike other facilities where you can shut down floors or entire sections for weeks at a time, healthcare spaces don’t have that luxury. Patients, staff, and visitors rely on these buildings 24/7, and shutting down large portions of a hospital simply isn’t an option. That reality makes sanitary stack piping replacements especially complex — because they almost always require live-line work. You can’t just shut down all the areas upstream of the piping that needs replacement.[RC1]
What Live-Line Means in Practice
A “live line” is just what it sounds like: a system that remains in use while it is being worked on. In the context of sanitary stackspiping, this means patients and staff are still using bathrooms, kitchens are still operating, and waste is still flowing through parts of the system — even as sections are isolated, opened, and replaced.
It’s not hard to see why this carries risk. Without the right planning and expertise, live-line work can create infection prevention challenges, compromise compliance, and put patient safety at risk. In fact, infection prevention (IP) is often the single greatest concern when hospitals consider undertaking these projects.
Infection Prevention as the Framework
For many contractors, infection prevention is treated as a box to check or a set of restrictions to work around. At GHP, we see it differently: IP is the framework that defines how the project is designed, phased, and executed.
That means engaging IP professionals from day one — not as gatekeepers, but as partners. Before any work begins, we align construction methods with hospital protocols, build containment strategies, and document procedures. Barriers and negative air machines are put in place to isolate work zones. Daily cleaning routines are established to ensure debris and contaminants don’t migrate. Paperwork and approvals are anticipated and streamlined, rather than left as last-minute hurdles.
When handled this way, infection prevention isn’t an obstacle to overcome — it’s a shared standard of care that guides the project to success.
Phasing With Patients in Mind
Live-line work is also about minimizing disruption. In practice, that means carefully sequencing projects so only a few rooms are offline at a time, or ensuring that temporary kitchens are designed and operational before a primary kitchen is shut down. It means thinking through how long each shutdown window will last, when work can be scheduled to limit disruption, and how the hospital can continue to deliver care without compromise.
This level of planning requires more than plumbing knowledge. It demands collaboration across architecture, construction services, and environmental expertise — all working together to design solutions that balance infrastructure needs with patient care.
The GHP Approach
What sets GHP apart is our ability to integrate all of these moving pieces under one roof. Our architects design reroutes and temporary spaces. Our construction team manages phasing and execution. Our environmental experts oversee infection prevention protocols and verification. By keeping it all connected, hospitals get one accountable partner, not a tangle of contractors to coordinate on their own.
The Bottom Line
Live-line sanitary stack projects are high-stakes. Without the right team, they can put infection prevention, compliance, and patient safety at risk. With the right team, they can be phased, managed, and executed in a way that feels seamless to hospital staff and invisible to patients.
At GHP, we believe the difference comes down to expertise — not just in building systems, but in healthcare operations. That’s what allows us to keep projects safe, compliant, and moving forward, even in the most sensitive environments.
CTA: See how GHP integrates infection prevention expertise into every building system project.
[RC1]This sentence may be superfluous based on the next section. Your call