Hospitals give special meaning to 24/7 mission critical and life safety. In fact, in 2013, we completed the installation of a sprinkler system in a large local 500 bed hospital facility.
Our construction department regularly designs and installs fire protection systems for new hospital facilities. The term fire flow means the required gallons of water per minute delivered at a design pressure. The facility in this example would need to exceed The Joint Commission’s minimum of six per type by providing 24 in total to meet the minimum requirement in NFPA 13. As healthcare facilities have grown in sophistication, so has their reliance on equipment, specialized environments, and computer systems. In fact, we’re proud to be the top fire protection service provider for the largest hospitals in central Florida. for your system will depend on the design criteria of your sprinkler system. According to NFPA 13 committee documents, the intent is still that these spares be provided and available on the campus and not necessarily required for each building.įor example, if a facility has a system of over 1,000 sprinklers which contains six different types, the facility would be required to maintain a spare inventory of 36 sprinklers (six spares per type, which would total 36). However, if the same facility has only one type of sprinkler, they would be required to maintain 24 heads. Fire Sprinkler Systems for Hospitals & Medical Facilities. The other provisions of the NFPA standards will apply to ensure that a minimum stock of sprinkler heads, up to 24, be provided for facilities to ensure facilities have an adequate supply of stock sprinklers. A well-designed fire alarm system can detect fires and other problems early, issue audible and. The Joint Commission has updated its standards to comply with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) interpretation of spare stock of sprinklers.Īlthough the National Fire Protection Association’s NFPA 13, Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler Systems and NFPA 25, Standard for Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance of Water-Based Fire Protection Systems require only one of each type and rating for spare stock of sprinklers, CMS requires that six of each type and rating be provided at a minimum. The NFPA issued a formal interpretation of the standard, prompting The Joint Commission to reverse its previous interpretation to be in line with NFPA 13 Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler System. Two ASHE Advocacy Liaisons, Lennon Peake, PE, SASHE, and Joshua Brackett, PE, SASHE, CHFM, took the lead in working with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and The Joint Commission to correct the revised standard. The American Society for Health Care Engineering's (ASHE) Regulatory Affairs Committee argued that this revision was a misinterpretation of NFPA 13, Standard for the Installation of Sprinkler Systems. Sprinkler System Components Other major components include Control valves : A sprinkler system must be capable of shut down after the fire has been controlled, and for periodic maintenance and modification. The change would have required these facilities to store at least six spare sprinkler heads of each type and temperature rating installed in the facility.
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