The American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE) is celebrating three advocacy wins with recent interpretations made to two National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) codes impacting health care facilities.
Each year, ASHE’s Advocacy Team represents the health care facilities management field by serving on the NFPA Healthcare Interpretations Task Force and working to sway code interpretations in favor of patient safety and health care operations . During the committee’s last meeting at the 2022 NFPA Annual Conference, three interpretations were finalized that did just that.
One of the interpretations helped to clarify inspection and testing requirements associated with the 2012 and subsequent editions of NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®. During its 2022 meeting, the task force clarified that doors that have a fire protection listing label and are located in barriers that don’t require a fire resistance rating do not have to be inspected and tested annually in accordance with NFPA 80, Standard for Fire Doors and Other Opening Protectives.
Two other decisions made by the task force bring clarity on how to interpret portions of NFPA 70®, National Electrical Code®. The group decided that unless otherwise required by Article 210.8 of the National Electrical Code, ice machines are not required to be provided with ground fault protection. The group also clarified that the 2011 and subsequent editions of the code do not require properly labeled spare breakers to be kept in any specific position, whether on or off.
The ASHE Advocacy Team will be sharing more about these wins and other updates on its advocacy work at the 2023 International Summit & Exhibition on Health Facility Planning, Design & Construction in Phoenix, March 12-15.
