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The Medical Gas Code Updates Within NFPA 99
Change is inevitable. In the healthcare and patient care industry, medical gas requirements have been subject to several changes in the latest NFPA 99 code cycle.
According to the NFPA website, “NFPA 99 establishes criteria for levels of health care services or systems based on risk to the patients, staff, or visitors in health care facilities to minimize the hazards of fire, explosion, and electricity.”
Every three years, this code’s revision cycle issues an updated version to adopt best practices and evolve with the industry. Since the 2012 edition of NFPA 99, there has been mention of the term “responsible facility authority,” commonly referred to as RFA. In these earlier versions of the NFPA text, the RFA is responsible for testing of the medical gas systems. These descriptions of the RFA role and individual skills have not previously been succinctly outlined. The 2021 NFPA now states that “the responsible facility authority role shall be the person or persons responsible for implementing NFPA 99 medical gas requirements within the facility.”
Among the responsibilities the RFA could be involved in include:
- Advising on the assessment of the facility to determine risk categories of different spaces.
- Code interpretations.
- An emergency medical gas plan.
- Assessment and acceptance of medical gas audit reports.
- Following the installer performed tests, a system inspection is required prior to the final system verification (section 5.1.12.2).
