NFPA or HOSPITAL COMMISION

[BillyShafer]

I work on back up power units. Just finished testing a state hospital (Texas). Did the test by NFPA 110 rules. 25%-50%-75%. Now the Hospital Commision (JACO) tells me I have to do them over because I was off 5% on one test. Their rules 30%-50%-75%. Why not have both regs agree so we will only have to worry about one reg to go by. It is only a 15 amp differnce. May not sound like much to some people. But four hours at a load bank in the sun is not fun.

[spareparts]

I work on back up power units. Just finished testing a state hospital (Texas). Did the test by NFPA 110 rules. 25%-50%-75%. Now the Hospital Commision (JACO) tells me I have to do them over because I was off 5% on one test.

I administer and maintain the communications systems for a 250+ bed hospital (telephone,microwave, conventional & trunked radio). The screwup was the HOSPITALS, not The Joint Commision. www.jointcommission.org

The customer is required to inform the contractor what standard the AHJ (authority having jurisdistion) is utilizing. And as a side note, The Joint commsion is usually a publication cycle behind (NFPA) the the local / state AHJ's

BTW, there a proposal to do a black start test for hospitals. A load bank test is not a real-world test for the fuel supply, transfer switchs, elevator controllers, and fire pump controllers.

Martin

[DeputyMarshal]

Hospital commissions tend to live in their own little world...

Who is the authority having jurisdiction there? If it's JACO, you ought to be doing testing to meet their standards. If it's some other organization (local Fire Marshal's, for instance) you ought to test to theirs and tell JACO to take a hike...

(We had a run in around here several years ago with a hospital commission inspector who insisted that something at the local hospital didn't meet the fire code. The Fire Marshal, OTOH, said that it most certainly did meet the fire code and that the inspector had no jurisdiction to determine whether or not anything met the fire code... In the end the FM won out because he had jurisdiction to rule on fire code issues and the inspector did not.)

[spareparts]

I work on back up power units. Just finished testing a state hospital (Texas). Did the test by NFPA 110 rules. 25%-50%-75%. Now the Hospital Commision (JACO) tells me I have to do them over because I was off 5% on one test.

Had to go back to my notes:

As of 01 July, 2007, most hospitals needed to have tested their emergency generators for at least four consecutive hours to meet Joint Commission requirements.

A provision under EC.7.40 (testing, inspecting, and maintaining emergency power systems) requires the four-hour test every 36 months.
Below are some further requirements associated with this new test:

*You must conduct the four-hour tests under dynamic or static loads that are at least 30% of the generator's nameplate rating

*If the four-hour test fails, you must carry out interim measures to compensate for the lack of back-up power until the hospital completes repairs

*Following these repairs, you must successfully retest the generator using the standard's provisions.

Where is the disagreement? Load Ramping or overall test duration?

[Rayr49]

Deputy Marshal is right. JACO lives in their own little world, despite their change to a "We're here to help" banner.

We have seen we have seen major write ups for kick plates on fire doors even though the plate is part of the rated assembly. The inspector was adamant that the screws used to attach the plate destroyed the integrity of the door regardless of the documentation by the manufacturer. We have also seen fire extinguishers written because the inspection date on the card was more that thirty days old. We used to sign the cards with the day, month year of the inspection. Thus an extinguisher inspected on 06-02-07 and then on 07-03-07 was past the thirty day window. We now just put month and year.

As deputy marshal said, Who is the AHJ? Test to their standards and don't be afraid to ask JACO for the basis of their requirements. You may be surprised how many are based on the personal whim of the inspector.
We are currently awaiting the review of our most recent inspection. They are approximately sixty days past their own standard for replying to the challenges and the proposed corrective actions of their inspection.

Stay Safe
IACOJ

[BillyShafer]

DeputyMarshal That is the problem. For years I have been going by NFPA rules now jaco says that is not good enough. It gets even worse if you try and go by the exhaust temp rules, about as clear as mud.

[spareparts]

We have seen we have seen major write ups for kick plates on fire doors even though the plate is part of the rated assembly. The inspector was adamant that the screws used to attach the plate destroyed the integrity of the door regardless of the documentation by the manufacturer.

Been there done that. Here's the final decision in our case: If the Kick plate is actually part of the assembly (and noted in the original test procedure to UL 10B/10C or NFPA 288), you are fine. If you can't prove it's an OEM part of the assembly, that's where you get hit.