Leviton introduces medical grade power strips
Leviton launched a medical grade power strip with load monitoring Inform technology. This new offering addresses a major concern of health care facilities – compliance with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 99: Health Care Facilities Code – and is a part of the growing portfolio of Leviton products embedded with Inform, a technology platform that provides real-time data to the end-user to improve safety, efficiency and productivity.
Leviton’s new medical grade power strips with load monitoring Inform technology offer a simple and efficient way to improve code compliance and electrical safety in health care facilities, and they are the only med-strips on the market addressing NFPA 99 load monitoring requirements in the patient care vicinity.
As outlined in Article 10.2.3.6: “The sum of the ampacity of all appliances connected to the outlets does not exceed 75 percent of the ampacity of the flexible cord supplying the outlets.” These newly launched power strips feature a line-of-sight, real-time LED that will only turn on if the NFPA 99 limit of 75 percent or more of the cord’s load has been reached. This feature is an indication only, as reaching the 75 percent limit will not shut off power to the outlets. Both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and The Joint Commission, organizations positioned to ensure compliance with federal regulatory requirements, survey and inspect to standards of NFPA 99.
“After visiting many different health care facilities, it became clear that complying with this portion of NFPA 99 has been very difficult and has resulted in non-compliance issues,” said Steve Caramico, product manager, Leviton’s Commercial & Industrial business unit. “Now, instead of having to manually calculate the total load plugged into the strip to determine compliance, users can simply look at the LED indication.”
This is the latest addition to both Leviton’s medical grade power strip offering and embedded Inform technology offering. Additional products with Inform technology will launch in 2020 and will include a variety of features such as line-of-sight data and remote monitoring data sent via Wi-Fi and viewed by app.
“We’ve developed Inform as a platform to be embedded into several of our products. Using data, we’re able to improve safety and in the case of the med-strip, compliance with NFPA requirements,” said Mike Mattei, VP and general manager, Leviton’s Commercial & Industrial business unit.
