The International Code Council (ICC) and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) of the American Hospital Association (AHA) are collaborating to develop a series of building code changes for hospital and ambulatory care facilities.
The joint effort aims to reduce conflicts caused by overlapping local and federal building and fire code requirements; ease the confusion between multiple authorities responsible for code enforcement of health care structures; create comprehensive building and fire codes for the design and construction of new hospitals and ambulatory care facilities; and create consistent code evaluation of existing health facilities, among other goals.
The ICC Board has approved the creation of a 15-person Ad Hoc Committee on Health Care to review and update provisions in the International Codes that affect the construction of new and existing hospitals and ambulatory care facilities.
