Exam Table Grounding

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cmckee01

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York PA
What are the grounding requirements on an exam table?
I am performing Electrical Safety Checks on exam tables in a medical facility. I am using a DALE Technologies tester LT544D.
I performed a chassis resistance test on 2 cords that supplied power to the exam table. One cord was for a drawer warmer and one was an outlet on the exam table.

The test on the cord for the outlet read open. That was the due to the fact that the receptacle was mounted to a plastic strap and the ground from the cord went directly to the receptacle and is not connected to the chassis. Is this cord considered one circuit and therefore required to have the ground wire connected to the chassis?

When testing the cord that feeds the drawer warmer I did not get a good reading either. The reading should be less than .5 ohms I was reading 6.37 ohms with my test lead attached to the drawer's metal slides.

I contacted the manufacturer and they told me I didn't have a good reading on the cord for the drawer warmer because there is a plastic washer separating the drawer slide from the rest of the metal table. This cord's ground wire is connected to frame and I just needed to find another place to connect my lead to unpainted metal. They then told me that they are not required to connect the receptacle's ground wire to the frame because the other cord is supplying the ground for the chassis.

This duty was just recently assigned to our Maintenance division. I am a bit concerned that if the cord that is not grounded gets pinched, that current will not have a direct path to the source.
 
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