NFPA Journal - Summer 2021 - 69

of the building not being occupied,
I would offer that recommissioning
and looking at NFPA 4 may be a good
option. Is there a code that requires you
to do that? Not unless the systems were
totally out of service, and then NFPA
1 would give the AHJ the authority to
require testing.

The second category of building
you mentioned are those that
weren't closed during the
pandemic but may have changed
their layouts or occupancy loads
during the shutdown. As these
types of buildings return to
something closer to normal,
are there any code and safety
considerations they need to
take into account?
Some buildings, like grocery stores,
have modified egress. In several
instances, I've seen that exit signage
has not been modified along with this
new egress arrangement. So, we're telling people to go to an exit only to find
that they're not supposed to use that
exit. There are things like that that
businesses should be doing now, even
before they fully return to full capacity.
The other thing that I've been seeing
inside buildings is the increased use of
plastics. You see these plastic barriers
between you and the cashier, between
you and the person working the deli
counter, and even in offices. Depending
upon the extent of material being used,
there are code requirements such as
interior finish requirements. It's something to consider because we may see
these temporary barriers continue into
the future. We need to make sure that
we're meeting the code requirements
for plastic materials or interior finish
materials.
Your firm focuses primarily on
health care facilities, which were
greatly impacted by the pandemic,
maybe more than any other
occupancy. Do you anticipate
seeing some interesting code
changes as a result of the pandemic
in the health care space?

I do, and I'm already seeing some
of these start their way through the
process. The Facility Guidelines Institute,
for example, has produced a white paper
that addresses emergency conditions,
including surge of patient care and alternate care sites. Part of that deals with
using space in a hospital for patient
care that wasn't originally designed for
patient care. During the height of the
pandemic, for instance, we had all sorts
of spaces in hospitals being converted to
patient care areas, even hospital chapels.

No matter what your
role is-code official,
AHJ, building owner,
or occupant within a
building-I would
encourage you to give
some thought to the
lessons you learned
from the last 14
months and share
that information
by participating in the
code making process.

There's also a section in that white
paper that talks about alternate care
sites. I actually chaired that subcommittee. During the pandemic, we saw
patients being treated in convention
centers, hotel ballrooms, and many
places that were never intended for
health care. But we were using these
spaces to house medical equipment,
medical systems, electrical systems, and
medical gas systems, as well as patients.
I think a lot will be done over the next
several additions of codes with regard to
alternate care sites.

Do you envision changes to NFPA
codes and standards related to
health care?
Yes. As the chair of the Health Care
Occupancies technical committee for

NFPA 101, I plan on appointing a task
group as we develop the 2024 edition of
the Life Safety Code to look at whether
we should be making changes to allow
more flexibility for alternate care sites.
For example, currently, if I convert a
hotel into a hospital as an alternate
care site, NFPA 101 says it has to meet
the requirements for a new health care
occupancy, which requires an eight-footwide corridor. There aren't a whole lot
of hotels with corridors that are eightfeet wide. I think there are solutions we
should be looking at.
There are also new guidelines being
developed around remote inspections
and remote testing of fire systems,
which I think could have an impact if
something like this pandemic happens
again. For a while, outside contractors weren't allowed to come in to do
inspecting and testing in health care
facilities in order to protect patients
or residents from outsiders who might
be COVID-positive. I think you'll see
some increased code activity along
those lines.

It seems like the effects of the pandemic will be felt for years in the
codes and standards world. I'm
sure there will be countless other
code changes, large and small, that
we haven't even thought about yet.
Yes, and I'd like to add one thing to
that. No matter what your role is-
whether you're a code official, AHJ,
building owner, or occupant within a
building-I would encourage you to
give some thought to the lessons that
you might have learned from the last
14 months. And I would also encourage
you to please share that information
with us and help out by participating
in the code making process. The Life
Safety Code and NFPA 5000, Building
Construction and Safety Code, are both
open for public input right now. As a
committee member, we would welcome
input from those of you who have
learned something from this pandemic
and can share those lessons with the
committee and potentially improve our
regulatory documents.
N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL

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