ICC committee continues code alignment efforts for 2027 cycle

In 2011, the International Code Council (ICC) and the American Society for Health Care Engineering came together to form the Committee on Healthcare (CHC). The objective of this committee is to develop code change proposals to the International Codes (I-Codes), which will result in the most contemporary, effective and efficient provisions for health care facilities to assure the highest level of safety for all users of such facilities.

One of the key efforts of the CHC is to ensure that the I-Codes are aligned with current federal standards and requirements for health care facilities. Alignment of code requirements, thereby eliminating wasted resources due to conflicts, is critical to delivering efficient, effective patient care.

The ICC CHC is actively participating in the current 2027 I-Codes development cycle with the next step in the cycle being the Committee Action Hearings – Group A #2 (CAH #2) which will be held from Oct. 23-31 in Long Beach, Calif.

During the current cycle, the CHC submitted nine proposals and co-sponsored an additional five proposals. Although several proposals were adopted at the first code hearing, five of CHC’s proposals were not approved and will be heard again during CAH #2. These proposals cover such areas as:

• Providing a definition for clinical need
• Coordinating medical gas quantities within the I-Codes for health care
• Temperature of water delivered to handwashing sinks

These and all other code change proposals submitted for CAH #2 are now available for review. To review the proposals submitted by the ICC CHC and others, access the web posting of CAH #2 proposed changes to the I-Codes on the ICC Current Code Development Cycle webpage. The files for the “2024 Group A Comment Agenda CAH#2” can be found by scrolling to the bottom of the webpage. See the screenshot below for a visual reference. 

Image from the International Code Council website