What exactly does "Hospital Grade" mean?

Thank you all for the replies, especially Albertporter - that pdf seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. However, upon reading that pdf, it seems that the primary differences are "grounding reliability, assembly integrity, strength and durability." None of which seem to me to be capable of affecting the sound of our equipment... or am I missing something? And I don't think that requiring "X" amount of force to remove a plug from an outlet makes the outlet superior for our purposes although a snug fit is obviously necessary. Does the "grounding reliability, assembly integrity" somehow make the outlets less susceptible to rfi noise and the like?

Or is the audiophile key here the fact that these recepticles come in a preferred choice of metal make-up, e.g. brass w/o a nickle finish?

So to summarize, what is it about these hospital grade differences that make them sound better???

Jea48, can you please explain the benefit of "Contact Pressure"? I mean I know what it means, but are you saying that the better contact pressure of hospital grade outlets is desireable because of an enhanced electrical flow, or as some others seem to be suggesting, that the benefits are in the power chord not being pulled out too easily/accidentally???

Thanks,
Ray

Hi Jae48, yes I do have one dedicated line coming from the main circuit breaker box at present. Right now it only contains just a consumer grade receptacle - meaning one dual outlet. I have an Arrow Hart 8200 on the way to me, which I've read some good things about, and so that will replace the outlet that's there.

Although I've been an Audiogon member for awhile, I've only recently stumbled upon the whole clean power/dedicated line thingy, and as of right now cannot even tell you which components are plugged into the dedicated line. I figure when the AH8200 comes, I'll either 1) Run only the amp and pre-amp from the dedicated line and run the PC (which is my CD player) and everything else from a common house line, or 2) Do the "split everything off of one outlet" approach and see how that sounds.

In my case, "everything else" is a lot of audio recording gear as my main listening place is also my workplace, which is a recording studio. So I've often got at least a dozen things on at one time that never get shut off and remain on constantly: outboard effects processors, microphone preamps, mixing boards, power conditioners, etc.. I know that this is not the audiophile best case scenario, but I spend only enough time at home to sleep, and so my studio has become my listening room.

Cheers,
Ray