Visit anixter.com/healthcare to download the ANSI/TIA-1179 Standards handbook.
TECHNOLOGY APPLICATION GUIDE
Infrastructure Considerations for Healthcare Environments

What is ANSI/TIA-1179?
The ANSI/TIA-1179 standard enables the planning and installation of a structured cabling system for healthcare facilities and buildings. Within the healthcare environment, the ANSI/TIA-1179 standard addresses design topologies and cabling performance, pathways and spaces, and field testing instruments and measurements for balanced twisted-pair cabling. By establishing the performance and technical criteria for various cabling system configurations, the standard covers critical cabling infrastructure performance as well as special considerations specific to a hospital, such as space requirements, work area densities and redundancy. The standard also includes definitions and best practices for grounding, administration and cable installation.
Why it's important?
According to the standard, “After the initial installation, adding or changing cabling could result in a net decrease in the quality of care provided, infection control measures or compromising life safety measures.” As an IT professional, providing technology services and integrating multiple departments’ clinical systems while maintaining compliance with hospital and government policies during implementation is essential to maintaining long-term patient care and satisfaction.
The ANSI/TIA-1179 standard was developed due to the diversity of the application environments within healthcare facilities and different design approaches need to be considered. Healthcare-specific considerations include:
- Wired and wireless infrastructure
- Properly delivering Power over Ethernet (PoE) in hospitals
- Providing enough bandwidth and density to specific clinical areas in the hospital
- Installation considerations (infection control and life safety).
Specialty Areas | Key Considerations | Work Area Outlet Density
|
Technology |
Radiology | Imaging bandwidth demands - Large data files associated with 3-D imaging applications - High-capacity transport and storage |
High | - Category 6A FTP or UTP - OM3, OM4 multimode fiber - 802.11ac wireless - Distributed antenna system |
Pharmacy | Security - Loss prevention - Protection of patient records - Audit trail |
Medium | - Paging - Electronic access control - Specialty door locking hardware - Video Surveillance - Distibuted antenna systems - Public safety wireless |
Critical care patient rooms | Patient monitoring - Patient communications systems - Amenities - Cleanliness and quietness - Smart rooms - Integrated systems |
High | - Category 6A FTP or UTP - OM3, OM4 multimode fiber - 802.11ac wireless - Zigbee-enabled sensors |
Emergency rooms | Safety and security - Protecting patients and medical staff - Communications with first responders - Emergency preparedness |
Medium or high | - Electronic access control - Specialty door locking - Video surveillance - Distributed antenna systems - Public safety wireless |
Infectious control areas | Safety and health - Reduction of infection risk due to airborne contaminants, viruses and bacteria |
Low | - Dust containment carts - Anti-microbial door locking hardware - RFID/RTLS - Thermal imaging cameras |
Data center | High-performance structured cabling - 10 Gbps server connections - 40/100 Gbps data center backbone connections - High-density cable management |
High | - Category 6A FTP or UTP - OM3, OM4 multimode fiber - Single-mode fiber - Direct attached cabling |
