(PHILADELPHIA) – Jeffrey O’Neill, AIA, ACHA, senior project manager for the University of Pennsylvania Health System, has been appointed to the International Code Council (ICC) Ad Hoc Committee on Healthcare. The 15-person committee includes six other representatives from healthcare organizations, 2 architects, and six building and fire officials from across the United States.
A collaborative product of the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) and the ICC, the committee will debate, review and edit proposals to change current international building codes regarding construction and safety at medical facilities.
“This is an important step in adding consistency to model building codes as it relates to healthcare construction, and I am proud and honored to be involved with the ICC Ad-Hoc Committee,” said O’Neill. “The continued work on construction projects with clinical, operational and safety professionals here at Penn Medicine gives me valuable insights to share with the ICC.”
The new committee sets out to eliminate contradictions between current local and federal code standards into one set of effective and efficient code guidelines for all hospital and ambulatory care facilities. For example, currently, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) follow National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) codes and municipalities follow ICC codes. To perform most types of facility upgrades, medical facilities must follow the NFPA codes and the code for their municipality. When those codes conflict, such upgrades become more difficult.
The committee aims to ensure the highest levels of safety standards are followed in all hospital and ambulatory care facilities and will likely minimize future building costs by improving efficiency at the same time.
Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.
The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.
The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.
Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.