California Healthcare Construction
Four practice areas, all anchored to one thing: the inspection record is a life-safety document. Class A IOR, Special Inspections, Project Oversight, and Expert Witness.
Core Service · Class A
California's Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) division — formerly OSHPD — mandates a certified Inspector of Record on all licensed healthcare facility construction in the state. The IOR is not the owner's representative, not the GC's quality control, and not an optional risk mitigation layer. The IOR is the state's certified eyes on the project, with a primary obligation to the code and to the inspection record.
HCAI requires continuous, certified IOR coverage at every phase of regulated work. A lapse — even a single day of uncovered inspection on a required phase — gives HCAI authority to issue a Stop Work Notice. Recovering from that lapse can require back-casting, re-inspection of completed work, and in the worst cases, removal and replacement of construction that cannot be re-inspected in place. The schedule and cost consequences are severe.
Shane holds License A20701, a Class A IOR — the highest certification tier available from HCAI. He has held it continuously for twenty-two years. His documentation practice covers the full required scope: Temporary Inspector Observations (TIO), Architectural and Construction Documents (ACD) review, and Notice of Materials Approval (NMA) processing. Every required milestone is documented, filed, and available for HCAI review.
At Marin Health Medical Center, he currently leads a team of four to five certified inspectors. That team model — coordinated coverage across a multi-building occupied campus — is how complex healthcare construction gets inspected without coverage gaps. Solo inspection models on large campuses are where lapses happen.
HCAI has issued Stop Work Notices on California healthcare projects for IOR coverage lapses as short as one missed inspection day on a required phase. The cost is not just the stop — it's the re-inspection process, the documentation backfill, and the delay to the critical path. On a project where the hospital operator is counting on a specific occupancy date, this is not a theoretical risk.
Shane is available for both new engagements and IOR coverage handoffs — situations where a project has lost its IOR mid-construction and needs certified continuity to avoid a Stop Work Notice.
Core Service · Code-Required
Special inspections are code-required, third-party compliance verifications for structural, mechanical, electrical, and envelope work on regulated facilities. They are distinct from the IOR function but often run concurrently: the IOR documents ongoing construction compliance; special inspections verify specific materials and assemblies at defined milestones.
For California healthcare construction, special inspections are not optional risk management — they are a condition of HCAI approval. Missing or deficient special inspection reports can block certificate of occupancy and, on occupied-campus projects, trigger regulatory hold-points that cannot be cleared retroactively.
Concrete placement and sampling, reinforcing steel configuration, post-installed anchor installation, masonry, and structural welding. Shane holds AWS certification — welding inspection on healthcare and high-rise construction is a specialty requiring credentials, not just presence on site.
MEP systems in healthcare environments carry life-safety consequences that exceed the typical commercial project. HVAC pressure relationships for infection control, electrical distribution to critical circuits, and medical gas systems all require inspection documentation that goes beyond what standard commercial special inspection programs cover.
Exterior wall assemblies, waterproofing, roofing, and fenestration on healthcare buildings. Envelope failures on occupied healthcare campuses are not maintenance problems — they are infection control events. Shane's envelope inspection documentation creates the record that defends against that outcome.
Special inspections can be scoped independently of IOR services, or bundled with IOR coverage for simplified inspection management across the full project.
Advisory Service
The GC's job is to build the project. The IOR's job is to document code compliance. The owner's representative — when that role is filled by someone with Shane's field background — is something different: an independent, experienced voice in the room when the GC presents a substitution request, a schedule update, or a change order that stretches the scope of the original contract.
Shane takes owner's representative engagements on HCAI-regulated and complex commercial projects where the owner needs someone who has stood in the field on projects of this type and can evaluate what they're being told. That experience is not available from a PM background alone.
Constructability review during design development — catching conflicts before they become RFIs. Schedule and milestone monitoring against the HCAI approval path, where delays in one phase can cascade into regulatory hold-points. Contractor coordination on occupied-campus work, where the interface between active clinical operations and construction activity requires management that the GC's project team has an inherent conflict of interest in running.
Shane's approach is direct: part of the solution, not part of the problem. That means finding the path to resolution — not advocating for a position — and presenting the owner with a clear picture of the real options when something goes sideways.
Project oversight engagements are scoped by project phase and owner need — from full-project representation through targeted constructability or contractor performance reviews.
Legal Service
California healthcare construction disputes frequently turn on the IOR's documentation — or its absence. The adequacy of inspection coverage, the completeness of ACD and TIO records, the standard of care for handling a field discrepancy, what HCAI regulations actually require at a given project phase — these are technical questions that most expert witnesses answer from a generalist construction background, not from a current, active Class A IOR license with twenty-two years of field experience.
Shane brings both. He is a working IOR, not a retired inspector or a codes consultant. When he testifies about what a Class A IOR is required to do under HCAI regulations, he speaks from direct, current practice — not from memory or from a position paper.
Shane is retained as expert witness and litigation consultant on matters involving: IOR practice standards and documentation deficiency claims; California Title 24 code compliance interpretation; special inspection scope and coverage disputes; construction sequencing and as-built condition assessment; structural, welding, and MEP inspection standard of care in regulated healthcare environments.
He is available for record review, written expert reports, deposition, and trial testimony. Engagements are accepted from all parties — owners, GCs, architects, subcontractors, and legal counsel — subject to conflict review.
Initial consultation to assess fit and conflicts. Contact Shane directly to discuss the matter — email is preferred for initial engagement.
Shane personally reviews every project inquiry. For IOR engagements, lead time matters — contact him early in project development.