The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) published the new Z8001 standard on Commissioning Health Care Facilities, basing it on an earlier standard, Z320, Building Commissioning, and tailoring it toward the specific needs and considerations that are involved in commissioning a health care facility. Designed to be used in conjunction with Z8000, Canadian Health Care Facilities, Z8001 assists the commissioning of both new facilities and renovations or additions to existing ones. Addressing the division and sequencing of responsibilities during the commissioning process, Z8001 also covers the actual systems that make up and are contained within the health care facility. Health care facility systems covered in Z8001 include those of architecture, transportation, mechanical (plumbing, HVAC, refrigeration, and fire protection/suppression), control (BAS, energy management, and lighting), electrical, security, and communication. In addition to Z8001, CSA has also developed separate standards specifically targeting health care facility plumbing installations, HVAC, illumination systems, waste material handling, area measurement, and infection control considerations during construction, renovation, and maintenance. Given how much people depend on health care facilities in both the indirect sense of knowing that they are there in case of anything and in the direct sense when they are patients within them, the fragility and urgency of patients and their care, and the large investments both monetary and of personnel, the proper commissioning of health care facilities is vitally important.
