scope:

Preface

This ninth edition of the Health Care Facilities Code Handbook has been developed to add to the store of knowledge on health care fire safety and to serve as a useful resource for all those who are involved in protecting health care facilities from fire and associated hazards. NFPA 99, Health Care Facilities Code, is the result of the integration of 12 documents developed over a 40-year period by the Health Care Facilities Correlating Committee (formerly the Committee on Hospitals).

In general, NFPA 99 is concerned with operational fire protection for the many activities occurring in hospitals, ambulatory health care centers, clinics, medical and dental offices, nursing homes, and limited care facilities. NFPA 99 includes provisions for patient care areas (e.g., wards, intensive care units, operating suites, and hyperbaric facilities), several facilitywide systems, and overall emergency planning for a facility in the event of an emergency (fire or otherwise) that interrupts the delivery of patient care.

Codes and standards by themselves can be difficult to understand for those not involved in their development. Handbooks present another vehicle for helping readers to better understand the requirements and recommendations of a document.

The numbering of paragraphs in the past two standards is substantially different from previous editions as a result of separating multiple requirements into different paragraphs, rewriting exceptions into new paragraphs, and moving text to annexes. The committee recognized that the location of a requirement (under a particular section/paragraph) can affect the interpretation of that requirement. Where new paragraphs or subparagraphs were created, the committee gave careful consideration to their location and numbering so that the intent of the requirements is clear.

The 2012 edition of NFPA 99 represents another major milestone in the history of the document. All the occupancy chapters are gone, along with the chapter on laboratories. A new Chapter 4 establishes four "Categories of Risk." The intent is that the higher the risk of losing a system, the more stringent the requirements will be to try to assure that the system is not lost. It is no longer based on the name of the facility. It is based on the facility management conducting a risk assessment and assigning a category to the system. One facility might have different "categories" for different systems and even different "categories" for the same use in different parts of the building. Chapter 4 provides some good examples in its Annex A material.

This edition of the code also has several new chapters reflecting the intent of the Technical Correlating Committee to broaden the scope of the document. It might be noted that some time has passed since the last (2005) edition of NFPA 99. There are two reasons for the long delay. First, it was planned to have a 2010 edition. Although that would be longer than the normal three-year cycle, the NFPA Standards Council approved this longer cycle to allow time for the intended major overhaul as discussed above. When the document was presented at the NFPA annual conference, the report was returned to the committee for further work. Since NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®, was on cycle for a 2012 edition, there appeared to be no need to rush to get out a 2011 edition of NFPA 99. It is apparent that there has been a tremendous amount of effort put into this new edition. The document should be much easier to read and understand.