While research has largely focused on access to daylight, views to the outside and more, hospital room door specification can play a large role in supporting health care interior design. This is true of commercial barn doors designed specifically for health care environments.
What are barn doors and how have they been adapted to health care interior designs?
Adapted from stable design in the late 1800s, barn doors slide along a wall rather than swing outward. When used as hospital room doors, these door systems have seen significant improvement in both their operational capacities and ability to support health care interior design goals—from space optimization to improved accessibility, from reducing noise transfer to increasing visual connection.
In addition to performance capabilities, barn doors from industry-leading manufacturers like AD Systems can provide a wide range of design aesthetics to meet the goals of nearly any project. This is incredibly important as welcoming and modern spaces can support more positive patient and visitor experience.
How can barn doors transform health care spaces?
Sliding barn doors, such as ExamSlide™, can save up to 30 square feet per door by eliminating swing arc trajectories. Designers have used these systems to facilitate more patient rooms in past projects. The ability for these systems to support space-efficient design could also be used to more readily incorporate private intensive care unit (ICU) rooms, which has been cited to improve infection control and support patient recovery.
Further, these doors can be specified as automatic sliding doors to improve accessibility and overall building hygiene. This is especially true for pressurized environments, where door operation can disrupt air seals. Automatic sliding doors open and close at set rates to minimize air turbulence and reduce the potential of cross-contamination on either side of the threshold.
Why are drop seals important for hospital room doors?
Commercial sliding barn doors that feature perimeter and drop seals can provide premium acoustic performance for hospital room doors. When used as openings to workspaces or in provider respite areas, these systems can mitigate alarm fatigue and support provider well-being to improve the level of care medical professionals can provide. In the long term, acoustic doors can also decrease the risk of burn out among medical staff.
Likewise, sound-attenuating hospital room doors can improve patient outcomes. Over the past decade, studies have indicated that noise pollution can be detrimental to the health and wellness of patients. Commercial sliding doors with perimeter and drop seals can reduce sound transfer to support acoustically isolated patient environments.
Go beyond functional with commercial sliding barn doors
Hospital room doors play a significant role in the functionality of the health care environment. That said, it is important that specifiers carefully consider the needs and code requirements of a space.
AD Systems has a proven track record of collaborating with design professionals to transform health care interiors to benefit patients and providers alike. Able to provide a wide range of flexible opening solutions, AD Systems can help building professionals improve not just the functionality of their next project but also its overall design aesthetic.
To learn more about how flexible opening hospital room doors can support building functionality throughout the health care environment, designers and specifiers can use AD Systems’ door project visualizer.
