Leadership: Anticipate Pushback on Space Heaters

It is the only time the accreditor considers nurses' stations to be patient care areas, he added.

Fireplace provisions
Winter months also present a good opportunity to review what The Joint Commission requires for fireplaces. Language governing fireplaces showed up in the standards for the first time in 2009.

LS.02.01.50 sets the following provisions for fireplaces:

• EP 1: Fireplaces can't be in patient sleeping areas and must be separated from these areas by at least one-hour-rated walls.
• EP 2: Fireplaces must be contained in an enclosure that is guaranteed to withstand temperatures of 650°F without breaking and made of heat-tempered glass or other approved material.
• EP 3: Hearths of newly installed fire-places must be raised at least 4 inches above the floor.

Fireplaces in vogue
The Joint Commission added the above EPs into the standards because of a general trend of seeing more fireplaces in lobbies, cafeterias, and other public areas of hospitals. This perhaps reflects the healthcare industry's attempt to create more hotel-like atmospheres in their buildings.

Fireplaces can't be in smoke compartments that also contain patient sleeping rooms.

LS.02.01.50 references 18/19.5.2.2 in the LSC, which sets limits for heating devices other than central heating plants.

The fireplace provisions noted by The Joint Commission come in exception 2 to 18/19.5.2.2. That exception also notes that if an authority believes special hazards exist, the fireplace enclosure must be locked.

The LSC doesn't define what special hazards are in this case, though one likely scenario is a fireplace in an area where children or psychiatric patients could open the enclosure if it wasn't locked.