Operating room normal lighting branch circuit

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david

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Comments please,
Back ground: Hospital operating room with out the presence of a lighting fixture on the normal branch for the hospital. All lighting in the room from the critical branch.

NFPA 90
6.3.2.2.11.1 One or more battery-powered lighting units shall be provided within locations
where deep sedation and general anesthesia is administered.

6.3.2.2.11.2 The lighting level of each unit shall be sufficient to terminate procedures intended
to be performed within the operating room.

6.3.2.2.11.3 The sensor for units shall be wired to the branch circuit(s) serving general lighting
within the room.

6.3.2.2.11.4 Units shall be capable of providing lighting for 1½ hours.

6.3.2.2.11.5 Units shall be tested monthly for 30 seconds, and annually for 30 minutes.

NFPA 99 Commentary:
Paragraph 6.3.2.2.11.1 requires supplemental battery-powered lighting in all areas where deep sedation
and general anesthesia are administered. Although these areas are also required to be served from
the EES, the momentary loss of lighting associated with the activation of the EES can be detrimental to
delivery of patient care in these spaces

NFPA 70/ 2008
517.19 Critical Care Areas. (A) Patient Bed Location Branch Circuits. Each patient bed location shall be supplied by at least two branch circuits, one or more from the emergency system and one or more circuits from the normal system. At least one branch circuit from the emergency system shall supply an outlet(s) only at that bed location. All branch circuits from the normal system shall be from a single panelboard.

517.63(A) Battery-Powered Emergency Lighting Units. One or more battery-powered emergency lighting units shall be provided in accordance with 700.12(F).

700.12(F).
(F) Unit Equipment.
The branch circuit feeding the unit equipment shall be the same branch circuit as that serving the normal lighting in the area and connected ahead of any local switches.
 

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Its pretty straight forward: If all the lighting in an OR is from the critical branch, it must be served from two separate transfer switches.

The other option is to put some lights on normal power.

Otherwise, if all the lights in an OR are served from the same ATS, if a breaker downstream of the ATS trips, it can take out power to all the lights in the OR.

I am aware of one place this happened, and it was a huge expense to go back and add a second critical branch.
 
The letter was a little long, so I didn't really study it in detail.

If you are the inspector, I wouldn't think you would have to convince the engineer. It seems like you could just say he needs to provide a normal circuit or a second circuit from another ATS to pass inspection. Maybe quote the code paragraph, but personally, I'd keep it short.

But I don't know the exact situation or your exact role.
 
Again I appreciate the comment, the short letter did not work.

When there is a disagreement on a code issue we welcome a discussion in an effort to better any working relationship through the code compliance process. After investing a reasonable amount of time, in discussion the project must move forward.

I think in this instance terminology of calling lighting fixtures on the Critical Branch N/E fixtures and the presence of the wall packs in the OR room has given the engineer the miss- conception that the requirement to provide a illumination source from both required branches has been met.
 
The same concept also applies to the receptacles in the OR. Some on the critical branch, some on another critical branch or normal power.

I think its fairly easy to find case studies and articles about the hazards of having all the power in an OR on one emergency system. For example:

http://journals.lww.com/anesthesia-...=2010&issue=06000&article=00021&type=Fulltext

http://www.ecmweb.com/cee-news-archive/emergency-critical-condition-hospital-power

In one case, they also had normal power outlets, but one can imagine how much worse it would be if they didn't.
 
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