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All you ever needed to know about swinging doors

Healthcare Life Safety Compliance, October 1, 2018

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Healthcare Life Safety Compliance.

New ASHE reference provides guidance on door inspections, maintenance

For anyone out there in the hospital safety or engineering world that needs a little help understanding all the codes and regulations regarding egress and fire door issues in healthcare— that pretty much means anyone who works in the healthcare industry, especially those who need to know the Life Safety Code®(LSC) inside and out—ASHE has a new reference book for you.

In many ways, a door is a simple device. It’s considered the entry point into (or exit out of) a room or a building, and we take it for granted because we see doors and use them every day. For many of us, the door can be a focal point, something of aesthetic value that we make into a decorative piece for our home, room, or even office. 

But to those who deal with fire doors in hospitals, doors are lifesaving tools. They require constant attention because their function is very simple: to save lives of those who can’t save themselves by blocking the advance of fire and smoke in the rare event of a fire in a healthcare facility. Fire doors are likely something you think about on a regular, if not daily, basis. And regulators do too. But what they expect from you can be confusing.

For a long time, most hospitals followed standards set forth by The Joint Commission, which also followed standards contained in the 2000 edition of the LSC approved by CMS. That changed when CMS adopted the 2012 edition of the LSC, as had been anticipated. CMS also now requires hospitals to follow the 2010 edition of NFPA 80, known as Standard for Fire Doors and Other Opening Protectives, which requires side-hinged swinging fire doors to be inspected and tested on an annual basis. NFPA 80 is a standard that covers the installation, inspection, testing, and maintenance of several types of fire-door assemblies.

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Healthcare Life Safety Compliance.

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