What to Consider When Picking the Right Elevator Solutions for Your Hospital

As of 2022, there are 6,093 hospitals in the United States, and these facilities have admitted over 33 million patients in the past year. To put it in perspective, that’s approximately 10% of the entire U.S. population. To constantly move and treat this significant number of patients is a task that requires elevators fit for the job.

In other businesses, such as offices or hospitality, property managers are often seeking style and aesthetic as a way to extend their building’s design into the elevators. In healthcare, hospital elevator manufacturers still attempt to incorporate design, but their focus is on passenger ease. There are several innovations which were developed specifically for healthcare buildings, and it’s important to know what to consider when picking the right elevator solutions for your hospital.

Building Purpose

As always, the building’s purpose is at the top of the list when choosing a hospital elevator. Different buildings on hospital campuses serve different needs. There are office spaces, emergency rooms, rehabilitation centers and more. And each of these various buildings are built with a specific purpose in mind. This purpose influences the elevator product you’ll want to have installed.

For example, in an emergency department, the elevator cab should have the capacity to carry heavier medical equipment. The hospital elevator dimensions must be designed to fit a stretcher along with several healthcare professionals.

AGILE with Adequate Signage

In the past decade, destination dispatch has become a staple for efficient passenger travel in many healthcare buildings. Products like TK Elevator’s AGILE can group passengers traveling to the same destination floor to ensure that wait times are reduced. This helps with congestion in lobby areas and results in patients practicing social distancing more easily.

When integrating this digital solution into your elevator system, it’s crucial that you use adequate signage for your patients and visitors. Most of the visitors will be unfamiliar with the hospital, and signage goes a long way in helping them find their elevator more quickly.

Air Purifiers

While you won’t spend very long in an elevator, it is still a confined space carrying several people at a time. Air purifiers are an obvious addition where mitigating and controlling airborne pathogens is concerned. This technology is also referred to as a “elevator cab air sanitizer” since it limits contaminants in the air.

Air purifiers are beneficial in all building types but are more frequently established in elevators for hospitals.

Precise Floor Leveling

When looking into the right elevator solution for your hospital, you will want to ensure you have the most precise floor leveling possible. Bulky medical equipment with wheels can be tricky to move if the elevator cab is even a half an inch off from the landing floor. Straining to push equipment over poorly leveled floors harms your staff, and equipment wheels can also be damaged in the process.

Precise floor leveling is possible and available, so it’s crucial to speak with your hospital elevator manufacturer. This will give you confidence that all passengers can exit the cab with no issue.

Medical Emergency Key Switch

Also known as a Code Blue Service or EHS, this emergency mode bypasses hall calls and allows the elevator to go exactly where workers need it to.This feature has been extremely helpful in saving crucial time that a patient or staff may need and is absolutely necessary to have in healthcare buildings.

Smooth Braking System

Another component that is quite useful in all building types, especially healthcare, is a smooth braking system. It’s an intuitive fact that passengers want to have the easiest and quickest ride possible to their destination floor, and in a hospital, this is even more crucial.

These are simply a few of the many features to look out for when deciding on which elevator solution is right for your hospital. To learn more, please reach out to your local branch manager who can further customize your hospital elevator and make it the perfect fit for you.