Patient Care Area. Any portion of a health care facility wherein patients are intended to be examined or treated. Areas of a health care facility in which patient care is administered are classified as general care areas or critical care areas. The governing body of the facility designates these areas in accordance with the type of patient care anticipated and with the following definitions of the area classification.
IMO, the contractor has made a mistake.That is my take on it also. However the contractor is not in agreement. He has already wired the room with MC (not HGMC).
That is my take on it also. However the contractor is not in agreement. He has already wired the room with MC (not HGMC).
To that I will add that there is nothing that takes places in an Xray room, and no equipment in that room, that would require any of the special wiring methods or precautions that are relevant to a patient care area.
In that instance, I would agree that that room is a PCA. But the Xrays that I have had taken in recent years were done in a room that had nothing but the camera equipment and a shielded area for the operator to stand in while taking the image. That would not be a PCA, in my view.. . . at times you will find much of the same electrical equipment in the X-Ray room with the patient as you would in any other patient care area.
The presence of "ordinary appliances" is not what makes a room a patient care area. Otherwise, the digital reading weight scale in the corridor would make the corridor a PCA, and the telephone in the waiting room would make the waiting room a PCA. First, the room must be declared a PCA. Then you decide whether the equipment in the room is "ordinary" or "invasive." That is what makes the difference between a PCA that is "general care" and a PCA that is "critical care."I believe the xray equipment itself would qualify as an "ordinary appliance" which would qualify the room as patient care.
The deciding factor is whether a patient will be examined or treated in the room.
I submit that an "examination" is a process in which one living human evaluates the condition of another, through the use of visual, audible, or tactile clues. Taking a photograph does not do such things. What we have here is one person taking the photo, and a different person using it, along with a stethoscope and some hands-on observations, to evaluate the condition of the patient.
Steve, you are not allowed to read the definition of ?General Care Area? until you first get past the first line of the definition of ?Patient Care Area.? If you are not in a PCA, then you have no reason to discuss GCA.I don't agree with you on that point Charlie. The definition of "General Care Area" says:
If that is the type of room under discussion, I would agree with you. But we don?t know that from the simple phrase ?Xray Room.? As I said earlier, show me the Room Data Sheet, so that I would know what is in that room, and then I would determine whether that room constitutes a PCA. Also, as I said earlier, the last time I had an Xray taken, I was standing on the floor, a film plate was placed behind me, and the Xray source was swung into place in front of me. There was nothing else in that room, and I would not call that room a PCA. When I first read the question, that is what I envisioned, having nothing else to go by.In an xray room the patient normally lies on a motorized table while that person is positioned by a nurse or radiologist. IMO, that makes it a patient care area.
Not at all. I equate it to going to a portrait studio. When the doctor brings in the developed film and tells you he sees an anomaly in your lungs, and then listens to your breathing with a stethoscope, then you are being examined.I think you really have to be splitting hairs to claim that taking an xray isn't examination or treatment of a patient. . . .
I never let that bother me.. . . .and I don't think you will find many other people that share your view.
That does help matters, in that it clarifies the function of the room, and it shows that there is more than just an Xray source involved.To help matters, this particular situation has a table that has electrical components. So I have drawn the conclusion that it must have a redundant ground.
Steve, you are not allowed to read the definition of ?General Care Area? until you first get past the first line of the definition of ?Patient Care Area.? If you are not in a PCA, then you have no reason to discuss GCA.
I never let that bother me.
And it shouldn't bother you - we all realize that the majority can be wrong.