Editorial policy
The rule: every factual claim traces to a source we opened, and every page says when it was last checked.
Who writes it
Facilities Field Guide is written by Chris Gaitanis, a hospital facilities and life safety manager, as a personal project separate from the author's day job. Experience shapes what we test and what we look for, but we don't ask you to take anything on authority: every claim links to its source so you can check it yourself. Opinions are the author's own, not any employer's, and no employer information or internal documents are used.
How products are researched
- Vendor primary sources first. Features, platforms, and pricing come from the vendor's own website, pricing page, documentation, or app-store listing — linked in the page's Sources.
- Hands-on where possible. Reviews are only published after we've used the product (trial, demo account, or real deployment), and say how it was tested. No hands-on, no rating.
- No guessing. If we couldn't verify something, the field is left blank (shown as “—”), not estimated.
How code and compliance content is verified
- Code guides cite the specific standard and edition (e.g. NFPA 80, NFPA 105, NFPA 101) and the regulator or accreditor documents (CMS, The Joint Commission) they rely on.
- We summarize in our own words and point to the source; we don't reproduce copyrighted code text.
- Nothing here is legal advice or a compliance determination. Your Authority Having Jurisdiction and adopted code editions decide.
Last-verified dates
Each page shows a last verified date: the day a person re-checked every claim against its sources. Pricing and features change; we re-verify on a rolling schedule and when readers or vendors report changes.
Corrections
Found an error, or are you a vendor with an update? Contact us with a source and we'll re-verify and note the change.
Affiliates and conflicts of interest
See the affiliate disclosure. Commercial relationships never decide inclusion, ranking, or verdicts. The author also sells their own inspection log templates (LifeSafetyDocs); any page that mentions them says so, and alternatives are covered on the same terms.