The built-environment within a skilled nursing facility (SNF) is highly regulated by federal, state and local codes, standards and licensure requirements. The purpose of this high degree of oversight is to provide this vulnerable population with appropriate levels of safety and security within the environment of care.
A critical passive element of life safety integrated into a SNF or any type of healthcare facility focuses on the doors that are installed to protect openings in a fire-rated and/or smoke barrier like a corridor wall leading to an exit.
When the operation of a door, also described as a “protective” by NFPA 80 (Standard for Doors and Other Opening Protectives) is compromised, the safety of building occupants can be in immediate jeopardy.
A closed and latched door can be the difference between life, serious injury or death during a fire emergency. For purposes of convenience, it is not uncommon to observe staff of a healthcare facility propping open doors in one capacity or another to avoid operating a lock or a door knob/handle.
Life safety regulations require doors to positively latch when closed to help ensure that fire and smoke will be confined to their areas of origin. The practice of stuffing material like tissue paper, rags, rubber gloves or other objects into the receptacle or “box” behind the strike plate in the door frame represents a Life Safety Code deficiency (K-223) and potential security breach.
This unsafe and non-compliant practice is being observed by fire inspectors, surveyors and other safety professionals on a regular basis. It is possible that staff members are doing this for infection control purposes to avoid touching door handles or simply for the convenience of pushing open a door. In an emergency situation, a door that does not properly latch will not provide the required protection within the opening.
This non-compliant practice has even been observed in rooms that are required to be secured like medication rooms and janitor’s closets. Unauthorized entry to these types of rooms could provide residents and others with access to drugs and potentially harmful chemicals representing a security vulnerability and serious risk exposure; not to mention the potential for multiple compliance deficiencies.
If a closed, latched and appropriately locked door was not such an important part of life safety compliance within a healthcare facility, it is likely that many doors would be eliminated or not equipped with any type of latching or compliant locking device. But since life safety compliance is such an important component of the operation of a SNF, doors must operate in accordance with the way they were designed and without any of the impediments cited in this article.
As a facility operator or safety advocate within your organization, make a point to take a periodic tour of your building to see if employees are compromising the proper operation of doors that protect openings to rooms like soiled utility, clean utility, storage rooms, med rooms and other spaces that require a closed and latched/locked door. Train your team to never use these types “shortcuts” to help ensure safety, security and compliance within your environment of care.
Stan Szpytek is the president of the national consulting firm, Fire and Life Safety, Inc. based in Mesa, Arizona, and is the Life Safety/Disaster Planning Consultant for the Arizona Health Care Association, California Association of Health Facilities (CAHF), Utah Health Care Association and American Assisted Living Nurses Association (AALNA). Szpytek is a former deputy fire chief and fire marshal with more than 40 years of experience in life safety compliance and emergency preparedness. For more information, visit www.FLSafety.org or e-mail Szpytek at [email protected].
The opinions expressed in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News guest submissions are the author’s and are not necessarily those of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News or its editors.
