Code Matters: Healthcare Door Accessibility + Life Safety Threats

By Nathan Woods for MEDICAL CONSTRUCTION & DESIGN

Code Matters
Navigating the road to resolve healthcare door accessibility + life safety threats.

Rules meant to protect people can sometimes have the opposite effect. Case in point: building code stipulations for door operating pressures designed to improve accessibility are actually creating a potentially life-threatening hazard for patients, visitors and staff alike.

The situation is the result of ambiguity in the regulations for accessibility with relation to doors and door hardware in public buildings. At the crux of the issue is the fact that the maximum allowable force for some doors and door hardware, as dictated under the Americans with Disabilities Act and enforced by a number of state and local authorities, is insufficient to protect people in the event of a fire. Conceivably, a blaze that has exhausted the oxygen in a room could suck open a door designed to unlatch with the required five foot-pounds of pressure or less.

Read the full article here: www.MCDMAG.com