Design, Production, and Inspection of Hospital Room Door

Beds in hospital wards are visited by wheelchairs, stretchers, and medicine carts almost every day, which inevitably causes bumps, scratches, and damages to wooden doors and their frames. Within a short time after construction, doors and door frames start showing different levels of damage. The longer they are in use, the more severe the damage becomes. This is commonly known as the "new building broken door" phenomenon. Because of the special nature of hospital room door, how to design and manufacture them during construction to meet their usage characteristics to the maximum extent possible is critical. Here are some views on hospital room door that can be referenced by hospitals with different needs.

1. Aluminum alloy edging for hospital room door

Aluminum alloy profile is used to edge all doors, frames, and door opening lines. Compared with traditional painted doors and PVC edging, this material has many advantages and almost no obvious disadvantages, except for its higher price, which can be called the best choice for hospital room doors.

Good sealing quality 

When wooden doors and frames absorb moisture (swell) or discharge moisture (shrink), the quality of the edging is not affected at all.

Good resistance to knocks, scratches, and damage

Since aluminum alloy edging is all made with corner wrapping, the edges of doors, frames, and door opening lines are wrapped 90 degrees, even if they are bumped or scratched, there will be no chipping or scratching around the wooden edges, which fundamentally solves the problem of damaged corners during use.

Keeps wooden parts of doors and frames in a balance of moisture content

Due to the tight sealing edges, there is no concern about the imbalance of the moisture content around the corners. The product's internal wooden parts are always kept at the factory's moisture content (gradient moisture content balance) state. Even if the indoor temperature and relative humidity change due to seasonal changes or when the air conditioner is turned on, the door and frame can expand and contract in a balanced state.

Good overall effect after installation

Hospital room doors, including the hospital corridor doors, are wrapped and integrally edged, so there are no loose seams or black lines, and all the edging connections are integrated, horizontal and vertical. 

Moisture-proof 

Hospitals are high-humidity areas, with moisture-prone rooms in washrooms, public washrooms, boiling rooms, laundry rooms, and disinfection rooms. Particularly, the humidity inside the wards' washrooms is the highest. Therefore, in addition to using aluminum alloy supports to separate door opening lines and frames, all internal door opening lines should be made of full aluminum alloy lines to ensure that the door frames and door-opening lines are not damaged under showering and other high-humidity conditions.

2. Collision-prevention strip for hospital room door

Due to the particularity of the hospital environment, hospital patient room door requirements are higher than those of other doors. Although aluminum alloy edging solves the difficult problem of damage to the edges and corners of the doors, frames, and door opening lines, the front of the door and the side of the frame still have positions where they can be bumped, scratched or marked by vehicles.

According to our observation, the parts susceptible to excessive scratching are those located 65-85mm off the ground (small wheels of wheelchairs or other small wheels), those 300-320mm off the ground (large wheels of wheelchairs or other large wheels), and those 780-800mm off the ground (parts of stretchers or other parts of vehicles). Therefore, collision-prevention strips should be installed in these three locations during design and manufacturing, with a thickness of 1mm stainless steel.

3. Hospital washroom doors should have blinds

After installation in over ten hospital buildings, we often hear about patients fainting in the washroom. Aside from the medical causes, a significant reason is that the washroom doors do not have blinds. Generally, washrooms have ventilation fans installed, which are mostly turned on during use. After a long time, without fresh air coming in, oxygen deficiency occurs, causing dizziness, not only for patients but also for healthy people. Especially when people are showering, the room temperature rises, and the lack of oxygen increases the likelihood of patients fainting. Therefore, it is scientifically reasonable to equip hospital washroom doors with blinds.

4. Material and structure options for the surface of hospital room doors

Regarding the choice of surface material for wooden doors, according to years of experience and investigations, the most suitable materials for hospital use are fire-resistant and antibacterial sheets or CPL antibacterial sheets for composite solid wood doors. These have an antibacterial property and meet the high standard of hygiene required by hospitals. The internal structure of these doors utilizes camphor pine as the framework substrate, and the inner lining uses honeycomb grids or other environmentally friendly flame-retardant materials. They are lightweight, eco-friendly, and have strong overall door strength, impact resistance, strong nail-holding capacity, good stability, and low requirements for hinge quality.

We recommend that all locks and keys of hospital room door, washroom door, and public washroom door should use the same type of lock and key. The benefits of this are easy management and fast access in case of emergencies. Even if several keys get lost, it doesn't matter.