Every medical gas system has to be verified by an independent ASSE 6020 verifier before a patient is connected to it. The verifier is not the installer and not the owner. Their report is what the state surveyor and the Joint Commission want to see.
What the verifier tests
- Standing pressure: every section holds pressure for 24 hours with no loss.
- Cross-connection: oxygen does not come out of the vacuum outlet, and vice versa. Each outlet is tested individually.
- Valve and alarm operation: every zone valve shuts off exactly the outlets it is labeled for; every alarm trips at the right pressure.
- Purity and particulates: the gas at the outlet is the gas on the cylinder, clean, with no residue from brazing.
- Labeling: pipe labeled at the required intervals, outlets and valves labeled correctly.
What fails
Cross-connections and labeling, mostly. A cross-connection is almost always a rough-in mistake where two lines were swapped at a tee. Labeling failures are carelessness. Both are preventable by testing at each stage instead of only at the end, which is what we do.
The other failure: scheduling
Verifiers are booked weeks out. A contractor who calls one after the system is done has just added a month to the schedule. We book the verifier when we are awarded the job.
Zero corrections on the last fourteen verifications. The secret is testing before the verifier arrives, not hoping.
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Send the drawings or describe the building.
A project manager or Carol replies the same business day. Contract clients on the 24-hour line get a plumber, not a service.