The question of what is considered a wet procedure location is consistently a topic of discussion in heated detail — particularly with reference to operating rooms, according to a blog on the Electrical Construction & Maintenence website by Krista McDonald Biason, associate vice president, HGA Architects & Engineers.

In the end, Biason said, if no risk assessment is completed by the facility for the operating room, then it is considered a wet procedure location by default. 

"As a design engineer, I must comply with (NFPA 99 (2012 edition). Often, I am told by the facility to “just tell us what to do,” but it is clear that the code states it is not the design engineer’s responsibility to complete the assessment," she wrote.

According to the blog, even though it is not her responsibility as a design engineer to create the risk assessment, it is her responsibility to advise her clients that they can, and should, conduct a risk assessment to determine if the room actually is a wet procedure location. 

Read the blog.