What you need to know about doors for healthcare

Many environments such as schools and public buildings place particular demands on their doors, with requirements including fire resistance and soundproofing.

Healthcare facilities such as hospitals, dental surgeries and veterinary clinics can have even more demanding requirements, due to the nature of the activities that take place within them.  Hygiene, and the absolute necessity to prevent the spread of germs and to control infection, are very high on the list.  Durability is important too – healthcare facilities can be rough places, with trolleys pushed through doors sometimes at speed (in an emergency).

Let’s look at some of the key things you’ll need to consider.

1. Fire resistant. It probably goes without saying that the doors in healthcare facilities need to provide substantial resistance to the spread of fire and smoke while simultaneously permitting rapid evacuation and access for the emergency services if necessary
2. Soundproofed. In certain rooms, such as Operating Theatres, noisy distractions from the outside are obviously extremely unwelcome.  There will be other rooms, such as maternity wards, where it would be kind to other patients to keep the sound of crying babies at night to a minimum!
3. Hygienic. The doors will need to be easy to clean and to keep
4. Safehinge. Specialist hinging mechanisms to avoid accidents caused by trapping fingers in closing doors
5. Durable. Door face protection, hygienic lacquers etc. can help to extend the lifetime of the doors in tough environments
6. Visible. White edge details on the leading edges of doors can assist the visually impaired, while bright colours can add some sparkle to a children’s ward!
7. X-ray doors. X-rays are widely used in hospitals and dental surgeries, and also in some research and academic establishments.  Protecting people from their potential harmful side-effects by the installation of lead-lined doors is most important – and merits some further detail

X ray doors

X rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation, with wavelengths between 0.01 and 10 nanometres.  Thus their wavelengths are longer than those of gamma rays but shorter than those of UV rays.

Here’s a helpful image, courtesy of NASA:

We’ve probably all had X-rays on our teeth (ever wondered incidentally why the dentist always leaves the room?  If so, see below!) or if we’ve been unlucky enough to have suspected broken bones.

As they pass through the body, the energy from the X-rays is absorbed at different rates by different parts of the body. A detector on the other side of the body picks up the X-rays after they’ve passed through and turns them into an image.

Dense parts of your body that X-rays find it more difficult to pass through, such as bone, show up as clear white areas on the image. Softer parts that X-rays can pass through more easily, such as your heart and lungs, show up as darker areas.  Thus we get images like this, which we’ve all seen:

Image courtesy of Bedside X-Ray

As with most forms of radiation, there is a health risk associated with exposure to it.  However, the part of your body being examined will only be exposed to a low level of radiation for a fraction of a second.

For example, an X-ray of your chest, limbs or teeth is equivalent to a few days’ worth of naturally occurring background radiation, and has less than a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of causing cancer. If you would like further information, please check out this link on safe dosage levels.

We mention this because in many cases special X-ray doors – usually lead-lined – will be required as entry/exit points to/from rooms where X-rays are being regularly used …

… and that’s where we come in!

Expert advice on doors for healthcare

As you can see, there’s an awful lot to think about when you’re considering doors for healthcare, and as usual it’s vital that you talk to the experts.

If you would like further information on our company please visit our home page or go directly to our contact page when we will respond as quickly as possible.

As always we’ll be delighted to help and advise you.