Hospital Grade NEMA 5-15P Power Cords

Hospital-Grade Standards Hospital-grade plugs, sockets, and cable mount connectors are subject to special requirements contained in the following standards:  Power supply cord standards— UL 817 and CAN/CSA C22.2 no. 21; and Attachment plug and receptacle standards—UL 498 and CAN/CSA C22.2 no. 42. 

The hospital-grade plug diameter conforms to NEMA WD-6 and UL 817 standards: (1) the blades must be solid instead of folded brass, (2) the blades are usually nickel-plated, (3) the plug includes an internal cable retention device or strain relief to prevent any stress to the plug’s internal connections and (4) NEMA plug and receptacle are marked “Hospital-grade” and with a green dot. Specifically, they must meet the requirements of UL 498 and UL 60601 for abrupt plug removal, ground pin retention, fault current, terminal strength, ground contact temperature and resistance, assembly security, cord grip strain relief and cord pull, and various durability and impact tests of the material.

North American hospital-grade cords must utilize NEMA plugs carrying the “green dot” signifying that they have been designed and tested to UL 817 and CAN/CSA C22.2 no. 21 as hospital-grade power cords and cord sets. Specifically, UL 60601-1 sections 57.2 and 57.3 require that “patient care equipment” used in the “patient vicinity” must use hospital-grade attachment plugs. “Patient care equipment” and “patient vicinity” are defined in UL 60601-1 sections 2.12.19 & 2.12.20. (See Figure 3)

Currently the UL 498 and 817 standards only allow the NEMA 5-15, 5-20, 6- 15, and 6-20 straight blade devices to be marked “hospital-grade.” CSA will allow the NEMA 1-15 if double insulated and meets requirements.

It is recommended to use power cords incorporating the international brown, blue and green/yellow conductor color coding in place of the traditional North American black, white, green conductor color coding. Wiring various country specific power cords to equipment before export, including shipment to the US, is simplified when standardizing on the international color coding system. Both the US and Canadian national electrical codes, as well as UL and CSA standards, allow the use of the IEC brown, blue, and green/yellow conductor color coding.