OCEAN CITY – The Fire Marshal’s Office is looking to outsource its own Quality Assurance Program (QAP) correspondence and billing to spare employees from the tedious work so they can focus their attention on enhancing fire safety.
According to Deputy Chief David Hartley, the local QAP allows the office to monitor the inspection and testing services of 15 to 20 third party fire protection companies servicing the nearly 2,500 fire protection systems throughout the city in about 1,500 buildings.
“… we have about 30,000 sprinkler heads throughout town, and about 10,000 smoke detectors, so this program for us makes sure the systems are maintained and tested,” Hartley said. “When we initiated the program, we found out just over 50 percent of the systems were being tested as required.”
The focus of the program is to ensure proper operation of fire protection systems in the event of an emergency by verifying all fire protection systems are regularly tested; making certain that reported deficiencies are repaired in a timely manner; and ensuring property owners receive quality testing and repair service.
“Currently the latter two we are having a difficult time doing. These are two areas where I want to focus on and improve in the near future,” Hartley said.
The Fire Marshal’s Office currently bills property owners $30 per system tested. Currently, QAP data management, correspondence, deficiency management and billing are done in-house on several different software platforms, none of which are able to be integrated with each other or with the inspection companies and system owners.
“Our current process is inefficient. The communication process is very linear between us, the inspections companies and the property owners. There are multiple data entry points … and the lag time needs to be focused on. It can take up to three months to gain compliance,” Hartley said.
Hartley calculates the estimated cost of outsourcing data management, correspondence and billing to a third party web-based system is $10 per system or $22,000. The projected revenue for a QAP in Fiscal Year 2016 is $66,000.
Hartley requested permission to send out a Request for Proposal (RFP) for outsourcing portions of the QAP for a third party web-based system and draft amendments to the existing ordinance to allow the changes.
“It looks like a great system just from the amount of time saved in the office and the redirection of your employee time,” Council Secretary Mary Knight said, as she made the motion.
The council voted unanimously to approve.