What exactly does "Hospital Grade" mean?

Jea48, I find it interesting to know that the "pull pressure" of hospital grade recepticles is tested for the hospital environment. I didn't know that and I work in a hospital. However, I'm sure our maintenance personnel are aware of that. One thing to note, at least in our hospital, is that the red recepticles are the only recepticles that are used for normal power and power from the back-up generators. The red recepticles are used for computers, ventilators, etc. Also, it takes between 10 to 15 seconds for the generators to come on line, so there is a slight interruption in power, except for anything also plugged into a battery supply. Our ventilators have a builtin backup battery supply of about 30 minutes. Thanks for the education!

Facts:
Hospital grade plugs provide more robust grounding than a regular plug. They are built to a better quality. Grounding and isolation transformers are very important to medical equipment. The 15 and 20 amp (three prong plugs) are not suitable for use around flammable materials. There are explosion proof 15 and 20 amp hospital grade plugs that look totally different than a regular plug. You have to insert these turn them a quarter of a turn. These are usually found in older operating rooms. No one at a hospital checks the force required to remove a plug.
(My boss is going to laugh when he hears that.)

I am a biomed tech and I work on and test medical equipment.

I put a bunch of Porterports into my system and there was a very notable improvement. Of course, considering what came out of the walls in the way of really cheap recepticles, this was to be expected. Not an expensive upgrade.

Well worth it.

Like everything else in a hospital it probaly just means they charge 5 times what it is worth!

"Hospital Grade" takes the place of "Mil-Spec" now that the U.S. healthcare system has overtaken the Military with regards to power and waste.