Art. 517 - Health Care Facilities

[mike abbott]

I've had various inspectors interpret this section differently, and I'd like to get some input on the following summary:

1) Hospital-grade receptacles are not required in all patient care areas. They are only required at patient bed locations.

2) Redundant grounding is required in all patient care areas, except as noted in #3 below. Thus, any MC cable must have a redundant ground built into the outer metal armor (also know as "hospital-grade" MC).

3) Luminaires more than 7.5' above the floor do not require a grounding conductor. However in a patient care are, luminaires still require a metal raceway system that itself qualifies as an equipment grounding return path. Thus even though a redundant grounding system is not required for lights, MC cable must still be "hospital-grade".

 

[don_resqcapt19]

Re: Art. 517 - Health Care Facilities

Mike,

1) The only place that the code requires hospital grade receptacles is in 517.18(B) and 517.19(B). These are both patient bed areas.

2) There is no such item as "hospital grade MC", the cable marketed as such is really AC cable with an insulated EGC. The outer metallic jacket of the common interlocking armor type of MC is not suitable for use as an EGC. The only types of MC where the outer jacket is suitable for use as an EGC are the smooth or corrugated tube types of MC cable. 517.13 requires that both the outer metallic jacket of the cable be suitable for use as an EGC and that the cable also contain an insulated EGC for all wiring in the patient care areas.

3) The raceway or cable jacket must be suitable for use as an EGC. Again, MC cable of the interlocking armor type cannot be used. You could use AC cable without the internal EGC for these lights.

Don

 

[roger]

Re: Art. 517 - Health Care Facilities

Mike,

#1 Take note that in a critical care area, a table is also a bed.

#2 Agree with Don.

#3 Look at Patient Vicinity. This specifically describes the patient care area using the bed as a typical reference point. There's no need to treat the wiring outside of this described area different than any other standard wiring method.

Roger

[ March 13, 2003, 05:52 PM: Message edited by: roger ]