Medical Exam Room Requirements

In the guidelines the term treatment room is used only when referring to rooms in an emergency or urgent care facility.

Medical exam room requirements. Therefore hospital grade receptacles may be a specification or design requirement which may exceed the minimum nec rules. The number of examination rooms with accessible equipment needed by the medical care provider depends on the size of the practice the patient population and other factors. Business offices corridors waiting rooms or similar areas in clinics medical and dental offices and outpatient facilities 517 10 b 1. Medical offices must provide exit routes from each exam room so that patients and staff can safely escape the building in case of fire or other emergencies.

Part ii requirements don t apply to. Large rooms to accommodate group visits and education for chronic disorders pregnancy diabetes smoking cessation family planning etc citation universal rooms or one stop care rooms that accommodate a wide variety of care activities e g registration blood draw checkout to. The requirements contained in part ii of art. The simplest of the three basic room types is the examination or treatment room.

One such exam room may be sufficient in a small doctor s practice while more will likely be necessary in a large clinic. Consultation talking rooms interspersed with exam rooms for patient visits when disrobing is not required. 517 apply to patient care areas of all health care facilities 517 10 a. Ventilation of hospitals incorporates ashrae standard 170 separately into each hospitals outpatient facilities and residential healthcare guideline documents.

Keep in mind that owner or engineering specifications may be more restrictive than the nec s minimum requirements. If x rays are performed in the exam room osha regulations require the equipment to be labeled with caution signs and limiting employee exposure to radiation by supplying personal radiation. It doesn t take long working in medical facilities to encounter the problem in defining differences between exam rooms diagnostic rooms and treatment rooms. The nec generally does not require hospital grade receptacles for exam rooms in medical buildings.

It is important to know the differences because the 2013 cbc has different accessibility requirements that apply to the required clearances for each of these.