Hospital grade receptacles and plugs are specifically designed to be tolerant to repeated cycles of plug and unplug. A hospital bed moves to the operating room and undergoes at least four cycles of plug-unplug, often by different operators. Over one year this adds up to well over one thousand cycles. This hardly happens to to average “audiophile” except the most obsessed one for rapid rotation of his equipment.Yeah, it's not just made up jargon. There are standards that have to be followed when spec'ing and installing medical grade wiring.
NFPA 99
Access the latest knowledge and information on safeguarding lives and property in health care facilities with NFPA 99, 2021 edition.
It is critical to take appropriate measures to protect patients, staff, and visitors from dangers and ensure health care safety. NFPA 99, Health Care Facilities Code, provides state-of-the-art performance criteria for health care facilities, materials, and appliances, including medical gas and vacuum systems, electrical systems, gas equipment, and features of fire protection.
NEC Article 517
Part II of Article 517 applies to all patient care spaces within health care facilities. Part II is required to apply to areas where patients are intended to be placed on life support systems or subjected to invasive procedures and connected to line-operated electromedical devices within these limited care facilities.
It does not apply to business offices, corridors, waiting rooms, and the like in clinics, medical and dental offices, outpatient facilities, or areas used exclusively for immunizations, psychiatry and psychotherapy, alternative medicine or optometry.
Wiring methods for health care facilities are required to comply with the applicable provisions of Chapters 1 through 4 except as modified, supplemented, or amended by Article 517. See also 90.3, Code Arrangement.
90.3 Application Example
In Article 517, the equipment grounding conductor requirements for branch circuits serving patient care locations is amended to be more restrictive. Two equipment grounding (protective bonding) paths are the goal and rule.
Section 517.13(A) modifies the general requirements in Article 250 by requiring an insulated, copper equipment grounding conductor and installing this conductor in a metal raceway that qualifies as an equipment grounding return path in accordance with Section 250.118.
The amendments/modifications are as follows:
These are two more restrictive requirements than what is normally acceptable in Section 250.118.
- Insulated, copper equipment grounding conductors
- Installed in metal raceways that are identified equipment grounding conductor return paths.