Every Kitchen in the Hospital, Inspected on One Visit
Main kitchen cook lines, cafeteria grill and fry stations — an independent NFPA 96 inspection covers every hooded kitchen on the same visit, with one report per kitchen and one schedule for the facility.
IKECA Member #76716495 · CESI #200771 · CECS #200452 · Scheduling from October 5, 2026
A Hospital, Four Systems
| Main kitchen — cook line | $500 |
| Main kitchen — second line | $250 |
| Cafeteria grill station | $250 |
| Cafeteria fry station | $250 |
| Four systems, one visit | $1,250 |
One Facility, Several Different Intervals
The nutrition-services kitchen produces patient meals around the clock, every day of the year. The cafeteria stations run only at meal periods. NFPA 96 Table 12.4 sets the interval by what each kitchen actually cooks, not by the building — so one facility can legitimately hold several different schedules at once.
Nutrition Services
Patient meals around the clock, with no closed day. The heaviest grease load in the building and usually the shortest interval.
Cafeteria Grill Station
Public and staff meal periods on its own hood, on its own schedule.
Cafeteria Fry Station
Frying at meal periods, then idle. Usually a longer interval than the main kitchen.
Ducts Through Clinical Floors
Long runs from the kitchen to a rooftop fan, often through occupied floors. The inspection records where each run goes and where it can be reached.
The Part Nobody Looks At
The continuous kitchen is the exposure. A nutrition-services line that never fully shuts down accumulates grease without the natural pause a nightly-close restaurant gets, and its long ducts often run through occupied clinical floors to reach a rooftop fan — the last place a facility wants a fire, and the hardest place to inspect. Because the kitchen cannot simply close, there is real pressure to defer or shorten a cleaning, which is exactly how a high-volume system slides past its interval. The rooftop fans serving these kitchens are frequently the most neglected component on the whole campus. And the stakes run past a fire-marshal notice: a CMS Life Safety Code survey can cite the kitchen under K-tag K324, Cooking Facilities — a finding that puts the hospital’s CMS certification at risk until it is corrected.
For CMS-Surveyed Facilities (Hospitals, Skilled Nursing)
A cooking-facility grease finding can be cited under CMS K-tag K 324 in a Life Safety Code survey — a Life Safety deficiency that puts CMS certification at risk. CMS-certified skilled nursing facilities face civil monetary penalties under 42 CFR 488.438: $136 to $27,378 per day, or up to $27,378 per instance. Hospitals face termination of their Medicare and Medicaid provider agreement for an uncorrected Life Safety deficiency. Most assisted living is state-licensed rather than CMS-certified and is not subject to this penalty schedule.
How Often NFPA 96 Requires Inspection
NFPA 96 sets frequency in Table 12.4 by cooking volume and equipment type. A high-volume, continuous nutrition-services kitchen sits near the top of that table; a low-volume physicians' dining room or a coffee-forward café runs far less often. The correct answer is per kitchen, not per building — which is why the inspection covers every kitchen in the facility and sets an interval for each, and plans the cleaning of the continuous kitchen around production so it is never deferred.
What the Inspection Covers
Each hood, duct run and exhaust fan is inspected against NFPA 96 in five parts, and every inspection includes the Fire-5 Tag Verification. Cooking appliances are not inspected.
- Accessibility for Cleaning
- Listed Systems and Controls
- Exhaust Fans
- Reporting and Records
The Fire-5 Tag Verification
We verify the posted tag and service record for all five fire safety systems over every cooking line in the facility, and report which are current.
One Standard, Every Facility
Health systems rarely have every facility in one city. Inspection is available statewide, scheduled by region, and every report comes back in the same format, filed by facility.
One Visit Per Facility
Every hood in the building on the same visit, scheduled around patient meal production.
Facilities Grouped by Region
One price wherever we come to you, and we group nearby facilities onto the same visit.
One File, Every Reviewer
One format, filed by facility, ready for a fire marshal, EH&S, a carrier or an accreditation survey.
NFPA 96 Trusted Advisor, All Year
The retainer stands on its own — no inspection required. A surveyor asks a question, a carrier asks for records, a fire marshal leaves a notice: those get answered by email and phone all year, with no site visit.
$500 per year if you renew it after an inspection.