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Hospital Power Cords – Meeting the Needs of Healthcare Facilities

The need for power cords is ubiquitous (see the above video to learn about the different kinds of power cords). However, the kind of need can vary depending on location and application. Different applications call for different kinds of power cords. The nature of the need varies from situation to situation, and the response to that need also varies. In informal contexts, particularly in the case of consumer contexts, responses to specific power cord needs can be improvised. But in rigidly controlled contexts, such as in hospitals, power cords often must be made to meet rigidly set guidelines. This is so that medical equipment, which is connected to power sources via power cords, can be relied on not to fail because of connection to power sources through faulty power cords.

NEMA, the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, is responsible for many of the standards by which power cords in the United States, Canada and some other countries are measured. They produced at least one study detailing the effects of electrostatic discharge in hospital settings, and in response to those observations and other observations it has been generally agreed upon that power cords used in hospital settings must meet certain standards in order to be considered safe and acceptable for certain uses in hospitals.

One of the defining features of hospital cords is a reinforced connection between the cord and the plug. The need for this reinforcement becomes apparent when power cords that are frequently connected and disconnected become damaged over time. There are many possible reasons why power cords in hospitals seem more prone to this kind of damage; one reason may be that medical staff in stressful situations pay more attention to their patients than they do to the connection and disconnection of the power cords they may be using. In any case, because of the added stress of hospital contexts, hospital power cords must be able to meet the varied, harsh conditions in which they are used with resilience.