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CMS and the JCAHO expect to see corridor door roller latches gone

Executive Briefings Digest, February 7, 2006

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The deadline is fast approaching for hospitals to make eliminate the use of corridor door roller latches. Three years ago, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that healthcare facilities would need to remove roller latches from all corridor doors by March 13, 2006. The move was partly in response to a 1989 nursing home fire that left 12 people dead, in which roller latches failed to stop the fire's spread.

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) will also recognize the March 13 deadline. Roller latches are easy items for inspectors and surveyors to check, and the JCAHO's new policy of unannounced surveys adds even more opportunity for slip-ups if roller latches are still on corridor doors.

At the time it announced its roller latch prohibition in January 2003, CMS indicated it would be a costly replacement for healthcare facilities. The agency estimated that 190,300 roller latches needed to be removed nationwide. At an estimated $250 each, the total cost would be $47.6 million.

Source: Healthcare Life Safety Compliance

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