At A Glance
- Installing bi-fold door hinges is highly recommended by Locks & Handles professionals, especially in a setting like a hospital
- Hospital rooms need to have doors that can be opened from both sides, but also adhere to regulations for fire safety and cleanliness
- By choosing folding door hinges, it’s much easier to ensure your patients feel protected, and staff can easily enter the room from both sides
- Before you buy, make sure that any bi-fold door hinges you buy are medical-grade and suitable for a hospital and clinical environment
In a hospital setting, installing bi-fold door hinges can significantly improve operational efficiency. In any medical practice, you need to address two main issues: providing a private space for your patients to recover, whilst also ensuring staff can enter the room at all times. You also need to ensure that your doors are easy to clean and meet certain hygiene standards. It’s a lot, right?
That’s why Multipointlocks, one of the leading specialists in door functionality, recommends that any hospital install bi-fold door hinges. These hinges make it easier to ensure doors can open both ways, meaning that staff can always get into rooms to assist patients when required. In emergencies when time is short, having to fumble around with one-way doors is not ideal, is it?
Of course, there is more than one type of hinge-fold door out there. Choosing the right option can be tough, so use this guide to help find hospital-grade hinge solutions that promote privacy, safety, and smooth functionality. By the end of this guide, you should know exactly what you are looking for!
The Role of Bi-Fold Doors In Hospitals
In any medical environment, it helps to have doors that are easy to open, simple to clean, and provide the right level of privacy. That’s why it’s wise to have bi-fold door hinges attached to all hospital doors.
First and foremost, let’s think about their usage. A bi-fold door with hinges attached can now swing open in both directions. That’s extremely useful as many hospital staff will be moving around the facility with their hands full. They could be carrying expensive medical supplies or even moving a wheelchair or medical bed from one room to another.
When that happens, having to stop and open doors – and hold them open – because they only have one way is not ideal. With bi-fold door hinges attached to your hospital doors, the doors can fold over. Thus, your staff can open the doors without using their hands.
There is also the benefit of privacy. Bi-fold door hinges can be designed so the doors stay closed. When patients need to rest, their secure locking mechanisms make it easy to keep the room free of distractions and people who could disturb a patient’s recovery.
Hygiene matters, too. For one, most folding doors can be opened hands-free. Some even come with touchless sensors, meaning the doors open automatically. If the door needs to be opened, it can be done by pushing into the door with an arm rather than using both hands. That helps to slow the spread of germs, making it easy to keep the hospital clean.
The bi-fold door hinges themselves are usually made from medical-grade material like stainless steel. That makes them nice and easy to keep clean, reducing the risk of contamination spreading around.
Essential Hinge Qualities For Medical Use
Of course, you don’t just buy any old folding doors or bi-fold door hinges. You need medical-grade standard equipment installed. That’s why we recommend you filter your search by looking for bi-fold door hinges and doors that are:
Stainless Steel
We touched on stainless steel briefly above, but it’s essential in a hospital setting. Stainless steel is much easier to keep clean and requires far less maintenance than other materials. The use of stainless steel bi-fold door hinges is likely to make it easier for your hospital maintenance team to keep the place clean and ensure that bacterial build-up on hinges is no longer an issue.
Stainless steel is also resistant to most forms of corrosion, which can be extremely useful for longevity – if you fit bi-fold door hinges made from stainless steel, they’re likely to last for a long time!
Anti-Bacterial Coating
Also, you should make sure that any stainless steel bi-fold door hinges you buy are coated with an anti-bacterial protection. That further helps prevent the buildup of germs.
You can even find folding doors entirely coated and protected with this substance. Most of the time, you are looking for something like an antibacterial laminate protection on the door itself. At the same time, the hinges should be made from stainless steel and coated with anti-bacterial protection.
Easy To Clean
Make sure that any bi-fold door hinges you choose are easy for your cleaning staff to reach as well. Most of the time, you should look for hinges that sit flush with the door frame. The easier the hinges are to reach, the easier they are to give a thorough clean-down, so make sure the hinges aren’t too obscured or hard to reach.
Fire Rated
Also, hospital doors need to have fire-rated hinges. Make sure any hinges you buy have a proper fire rating: this is a non-negotiable feature. Failure to install fire-rated hinges could leave your hospital vulnerable to legal issues down the road, so always ensure any compatible bi-fold door hinges you buy are also fire-rated.
Medical-Grade Bi-Fold Door Hinges: Safe, Hygienic & Long-Lasting
When shopping for bi-fold door hinges for your hospital, you can simplify your search by filtering for medical-grade hinges. These are designed specifically for the environment you work in.
That helps to cut down on the issues we touched on above, such as ensuring hinges are hygienic and fire-rated. Medical-grade hinges cost a little more but give you the confidence that your hinges actually meet the standards and expectations required.
Give your patients the privacy they need whilst ensuring hospital staff can move around seamlessly, all without picking up germs from doors and door hinges.
