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| Main entrance – Automatic revolving door |
Hospitals are the kind of buildings in which movement should be more fluent: both healthcare staff and patients should be able to move around without any type of hindrance. In emergency situations, the first ones are normally carrying bulky instruments, stretchers or wheelchairs. The second ones, as well as their visitors, should not encounter barriers of any kind either, especially if they are elderly or with limited mobility.
This is the reason why it is extremely important to have automated accesses, not only in the main entrances, but also in every point of the healthcare building where a door is needed. The accesses need to be designed to facilitate mobility, and be able to fulfil the required functions.
Each area of a hospital has specific access requirements. It is necessary to choose the most suitable option in each case: main, secondary and emergency entrances, doors situated on evacuation routes, doors for partitioning and doors for operating theatres, observation rooms and X-ray rooms. All of them have to ensure an efficient and sustainable healthcare environment in which different areas are separated but have no obstacles between them.
Doors for main, secondary and emergency entrances
Main entrances, secondary entrances and emergency entrances should enable heavy pedestrian traffic and be quick and safe. The most suitable types of doors for such access points are heavy traffic automatic revolving doors and sliding doors.
Large diameter revolving doors allow heavier pedestrian traffic and are also ideal for maintaining air conditioning inside the building. They also enable the creation of refined and elegant entrance zones, and since they are available in a range of different designs and finishes, they are compatible with any architectural environment.
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| Main entrance- Two bi-parting sliding doors | Emergency entrance – Bi-parting sliding door |
As regards sliding doors, there are dozens of options and combinations available that make it possible to adapt them to any requirement. Bi-parting sliding doors, single sliding doors, or telescopic sliding doors with central or side opening to maximise the opening area can be combined to create airlocks to preserve the climate inside the facility. Sliding doors are recommended at public entrances and exits where there is heavier pedestrian traffic or where the safety of the users is linked to the fluidity of the traffic movement, which is why they are recommended at hospital entrances.
A hospital should always be open and always available. Therefore, it needs access points with proven reliability and, above all, that require little maintenance. An automatic door operator with three-phase AC motors and no reduction gear unit or brushes minimises the need for maintenance. Furthermore, the possibility of independent adjustment of force and speed of the doors helps to balance the need for the maximisation of the opening speed to facilitate access and the safety of users.
Doors situated on evacuation routes
Doors situated on evacuation routes must have by law an alternative system to facilitate their opening in the event of an emergency. The most suitable automatic doors in this case is one with integrated panic break-out mechanism, as it combines the function of a sliding door with the option to fold back the leaves on the sides of the door, maximising the transit area. On the other hand, this type of door can also be installed anywhere that, given its characteristics, might require a larger transit area than usual, such as high transit corridors or where very large equipment has to pass.
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| Evacuation routes during panic break-out | Evacuation routes during panic break-out |
A door with panic break-out system works in the normal way in everyday situations (sliding and automatic). In the event of evacuation or emergency, the leaves can be folded back simply by pushing them out to lie flat against the sides, to allow a wide evacuation transit area and the orderly and safe exit of users.
Automatic doors with panic break-out mechanisms with framed or transparent leaves can be installed. Leaves that are fully framed around the entire perimeter are extremely strong and long-lasting, which makes them suitable for high transit areas or in areas where they are more likely to receive impacts given the type of users that go through the door (patients on stretchers, wheelchairs, bulky equipment). As for the transparent leaves option, these leaves offer the safety of the panic break-out mechanism without having to renounce the aesthetics provided by the transparency of the glass without vertical profiles.
Partitioning doors
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| Partitioning – single sliding door |
Automatic doors can also be used to sectorise spaces. When the automatic door’s only function is to separate areas, there is a wide range of possibilities that can be adapted according to the needs: bi-parting sliding doors, single sliding or telescopic doors for the maximisation of the opening area. Moreover, there are specific building interior automatic doors to minimise the impact of the operator in the environment, as they are based in an automatic guide with an extremely compact design. These automatic doors can also include access control accessories to restrict access to certain areas.
Partition may also occasionally be required, for example, to demarcate areas with the highest risk of fire and to prevent fire from spreading outside them. Such is the case in warehouses, car parks or in areas that, due to their function, require special protection against fire, such as new-born baby areas. In these cases, the installation of automatic doors with integrity and insulation fire wall properties, made entirely of glass and aluminium, minimises the impact of the door on the environment without renouncing safety, and combines an automatic door and a fire door in a single building element.
Doors for operating theatres, observation rooms and X-ray rooms
Operating theatres, observation rooms and surgical X-ray rooms are rooms where the number of particles in the air, pressure, temperature and moisture are monitored to check the correct degree of cleanliness. It is important that this differential in the characteristics of the environment of a clean room is constantly maintained to enable the room to fulfil its function.
The hermetic door that seals the gap should therefore fulfil a series of requirements in order to ensure it can accomplish the functions required of it:
- Contribute to keeping the room free of external contamination or prevent contamination from leaving the room
- Seal the entrance gap to maintain the pressure differential
- Optimise the use of treated air inside the area
- Reduce the operating costs of the clean area
In order to guarantee that these functions are fulfilled, every detail of the construction of hermetic doors needs to be painstakingly controlled. In the case of hermetic swing doors, it is important for the leaf to be sealed on the side and top part to guarantee a hermetic seal. Furthermore, a wind stopper that slides against the floor when the door is closed will ensure the perfect sealing at the bottom.
As regards sliding hermetic doors, the leaf descends 15 mm towards the floor and moves 10 mm towards the frame to hermetically seal the perimeter of the opening, to guarantee hermetic sealing. A block frame also ensures a perfect fit with the leaf and guarantees hermetic sealing on any type of wall, allowing the opening to be clad with the same finish as the leaf itself.
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| Swing door sealing (open-closed) | Sliding door sealing (open-closed) |
In addition to guaranteeing hermetic sealing, hermetic doors should also enhance functional, hygienic and aesthetic properties, which are all important in the development of health projects.
The hermetic operator that Manusa doors are equipped with, provides excellent kinematic performance, equipping the door with unbeatable functions. Special leaf carriages for the hermetic door and the special double drop guide ensures smooth and bump-free sliding movement of the leaf. This feature enables easy manual opening of the leaves in the event of a power failure, without the need for incorporating door release handles on leaves (not very aesthetic and difficult to use). A nice looking and very functional door handle is enough to slide the leaves gently.
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Sliding hermetic HPL
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Swing hermetic HPL
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The use of fine materials in the manufacture of automatic hermetic doors, such as stainless steel or high pressure laminate, which are both easy to clean, help to guarantee hygiene. The finishes on the door itself, with smooth or recessed surfaces, should also minimise dust and dirt accumulations at joints, a very important aspect for keeping clean environments.
Aesthetically speaking, it is important for the hermetic doors to be integrated within the hospital project, whether the hospital is a newly built facility or one which is already in use, all of which is possible thanks to the many different finishes and combinations available. On the other hand, the design of the door itself (recessed vision panels, door handles) can also offer a different style. In addition, the option to install a perimeter frame made of the same finish as the leaf to make the assembly both more attractive and more hermetic, provides a solid, smooth finish, guaranteeing a perfect overlap with the moving leaf.
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| Partitioning fire-resistant door | Glazed automatic hermetic door |
For other areas with special functions, such as observation rooms or intensive care units for example, full glass hermetic doors can be installed, offering great visibility of the inside of the spaces at the same time as hermetically insulating them. They are 100 per cent hermetic doors that maintain the required pressure, temperature and moisture despite their transparency. Furthermore, for situations in which privacy is occasionally required inside the room, the installation of electro polarised glass that changes from transparent to opaque in a few seconds, offers the option to transform the door into a conventional hermetic door.
Lead-lined automatic doors for X-Ray rooms can also be installed, guaranteeing the perfect insulation of these spaces thanks to their lead lining on both the leaf and the vision panel. These doors can be hermetic or not, depending on the space they demarcate, swing or sliding, with the same insulating attributes as hermetic doors without lead (approximation to frame in sliding doors, wind stopper in swing doors, etc.).
The hermetic doors are also complemented with specific accessories, such as elbow push buttons to make it easier to open them when people’s hands are busy or touchless switches that also allow opening the door without contact, preventing the contamination of already sterilised gloves.
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| Partitioning door | Lead isolation |
Centralised access control system
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| Sliding hermetic stainless steel |
All the hospitals’ automatic access points can be controlled from a central control point with specialised management software, for e.g. Manulink from Manusa.
Manulink software allows remote selection of automatic access opening modes (open, closed, reduced opening) and programming for areas with restricted access hours, an extremely useful function in hospital buildings.
On the other hand, any type of incident that affects an automatic door can also be remotely detected immediately and integrated with other centralised management systems in the hospital.
Manusa offers a complete solution in hospital doors for both specific applications that require hermetic sealing with its wide range of sliding, hermetic, swing, full glass doors for observation wards or lead-lined doors for X-ray rooms, and for applications for automatic entrance doors, corridors, specific areas, etc. All products are available in a wide range of finishes adapted to the specific needs of each hospital project, and with a wide range of accessories to equip the door with practically unlimited.
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