BLOG NUMBER 31
Hospitals and medical campuses cannot close when it snows. Patients still need to arrive for surgery, staff still need to make three shift changes a day, and ambulances still need clear, dry pavement the moment they pull up to the bay. In my two decades running snow and ice operations for large commercial properties, I have found that hospital snow removal operations carry a different level of pressure than almost any other property type I have worked with, because the consequences of a slow response show up immediately in patient care, not just in a maintenance report.
As a Certified Snow Professional (CSP) who has personally overseen more than 20,000 acres of pavement and 40 million square feet of sidewalks, including work with medical centers, I want to walk through what makes a healthcare campus different, what a well run winter plan actually looks like, and when it makes sense to bring in outside expertise.
Why Hospitals Present Unique Winter Risk
A typical office building can absorb a slow start to snow removal. A hospital cannot. Emergency vehicle access, main entrance walkways, and the paths connecting parking structures to the building all need to stay clear around the clock, not just during business hours. On top of that, hospital campuses tend to have a mix of surfaces that most other properties do not: helipads, ambulance bays, covered drop off zones, exterior stairwells, and long connector walkways between buildings, each with its own clearing priority and timing.
Patient and visitor populations add another layer. Many people arriving on foot are elderly, recovering from surgery, using a cane or walker, or simply unsteady on their feet. Staff are often walking to and from parking in the dark, before sunrise or after sunset, during the exact hours when black ice is most likely to form. If you want a deeper look at how that specific hazard develops, I cover it in my guide on what black ice is and how to remove it.
Core Components of Hospital Snow Removal Operations
When I evaluate hospital snow removal operations, I look at the plan the same way I would have looked at it running my own crews at Snowmen, Inc. for over twenty years. A few pieces matter more here than almost anywhere else.
Response time tiers. Ambulance bays and the main emergency entrance should be treated as the highest tier, cleared before, during, and immediately after a storm event, not on the standard rotation used for parking lots. A hospital’s snow removal contract should spell out separate response time commitments for these critical zones.
Continuous coverage, not single visits. Most commercial properties can operate on a plan of one or two visits per storm. A hospital campus generally needs a crew monitoring conditions and reapplying deicing material through the full duration of a storm and well into the following day, since foot traffic never really stops.
Deicing material selection. Certain deicing products are corrosive to specific surfaces, sensitive to landscaping near patient healing gardens, or tracked indoors onto floors that need to stay dry for patients using mobility aids. I recommend a facility specific deicing plan rather than a generic one size fits all product choice.
Equipment sized for tight spaces. Ambulance bays, loading docks, and connector walkways between buildings are often narrower and more obstructed than a standard parking lot. Crews need equipment that can maneuver in these spaces without damaging bollards, signage, or building infrastructure.
Documentation. I recommend that every hospital campus keep a detailed log of when crews arrived, what was treated, and what conditions looked like at each visit. Beyond being good operational practice, this kind of record keeping helps a facilities team demonstrate a consistent, well managed program to its own risk management and insurance partners. If your current agreement does not already spell out documentation requirements, my guide to snow removal contracts walks through what a solid contract should include.
Best Practices That Apply to Medical Campuses
The Snow & Ice Management Association (SIMA) publishes best practice guidance that I regularly reference when I advise facilities teams, and it applies directly to healthcare settings. A few practices I consistently recommend on hospital campuses:
- Pre season planning meetings between the facilities team and the snow removal contractor, ideally before the first frost, to walk the property and identify high priority zones together.
- A written weather trigger policy, so crews mobilize based on forecast conditions rather than waiting for a call after snow has already started accumulating.
- Clearly marked pedestrian routes with adequate lighting, since visibility matters as much as traction when patients and staff are moving through a property before dawn.
- A backup plan for equipment failure or staffing shortages during a major storm, given that a hospital cannot simply wait a day for a replacement crew the way a retail property might.
When to Bring in a Consultant
Facilities directors and property managers reach out to me most often in one of two situations. The first is a new campus or a recent expansion, where the existing snow removal plan has not been updated to reflect new buildings, new entrances, or a new parking structure. The second is a facilities team that has renewed the same snow removal contract for years without a fresh evaluation of response times, staffing levels, or deicing practices against current best practices.
In either case, an outside review can identify gaps before they become a problem during an actual storm, rather than after one. That is the kind of review I offer through my consulting services, where I bring my own operational background, having run one of the largest snow and ice management companies in the Kansas City area, to evaluate a facility’s plan from the perspective of someone who has actually run the crews, not just written about it. You can read more about my background and credentials on my credentials page.
Conclusion
Hospital snow removal operations demand a higher standard than most commercial properties because the people walking those pathways are often at their most vulnerable. Clear ambulance bays, continuous storm coverage, the right deicing materials for sensitive surfaces, and thorough documentation are not optional extras on a medical campus. They are the baseline.
After 20 years running one of the largest snow and ice management operations in the country, I have seen firsthand how much these details matter on a healthcare campus specifically. If you manage a hospital or medical facility and want a second look at your current winter plan, I am happy to talk through your property and what I would recommend. Feel free to reach out through my contact page to start that conversation.
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