Texas Administrative Code › Title 26 - HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES › Part 1 - HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION › Chapter 554 - NURSING FACILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR LICENSURE AND MEDICAID CERTIFICATION › Subchapter D - FACILITY CONSTRUCTION › Division 9 - FACILITIES LICENSED ON OR AFTER APRIL 2, 2018 › Section 554.355 - Exit Provisions for New Facilities

Current through Reg. 49, No. 28; July 12, 2024
Exit provisions, including doors, corridors, stairways,
						other exit-ways, locks, and other applicable items must conform to the
						requirements of NFPA 101 concerning means of egress and to this section to
						ensure that residents can be rapidly and easily evacuated from the building at
						all times, or from one part of the building to a safe area of refuge in another
						part of the building. Exit provisions are as follows:
(1) Bedroom space arrangement and doors and
					 corridors must be designed for evacuation of bedfast residents by means of
					 rolling the bed to a safe place in the building or to the outside.
(2) Public assembly rooms, common living
					 rooms, dining rooms, and other rooms with a capacity of 50 or more persons or
					 greater than 1,000 square feet in area must have two means of egress remote
					 from each other. Out-swinging doors with panic hardware must be provided for
					 these egress doors.
(3) Exit doors
					 and ways of egress must be maintained clear and free for use at all times,
					 except as permitted by NFPA 101. Furnishings, equipment, carts, and other
					 obstacles must not be left to block egress at any time, except as permitted by
					 NFPA 101.
(4) Steps in interior
					 ways of egress are prohibited. If changes of elevation are necessary within
					 ways of egress, approved ramps with a maximum slope of one unit of rise to 12
					 units of run must be provided.
(5)
					 Doors in means of egress must be as follows:
(A) Locking hardware or devices which are
					 capable of preventing or inhibiting immediate egress must not be used in any
					 room or area that can be occupied.
(B) A latch or other fastening device on an
					 exit door must be provided with a knob, handle, panic bar, or similar releasing
					 device. The method of operation must be obvious in the dark, without use of a
					 key, and operable by a well-known, one-action operation that will easily
					 operate with normal pressure applied to the door or to the device toward the
					 exterior. Locking hardware which prevents unauthorized entry from the outside
					 is permissible. Self-closing devices and permanently mounted hold-open devices
					 to expedite emergency egress and prevent accidental lock-out must be provided
					 for exterior exit doors.
(C) No
					 screen or storm door may swing against the direction of exit travel when main
					 doors are required to swing out.
(D) To aid in control of wandering residents,
					 buzzers or other sounding devices may be used to announce the unauthorized use
					 of an exit door. Other methods include approved emergency exit door locks or
					 fencing with a gate outside of exit doors which enclose a space large enough to
					 allow the space to be an exterior area of egress and refuge away from the
					 building.
(E) Inactive leaves of
					 double doors may have easily accessible and easily operable bolts if the active
					 leaf is 44 inches wide, where permitted by NFPA 101. Center mullions are
					 prohibited.
(F) Resident baths or
					 toilets having privacy locks will require that keys or devices for opening the
					 doors are kept readily available to the staff.
(G) Folding doors must not be used in exit
					 corridors or other means of egress. Sliding doors, when permitted by NFPA 101,
					 may be used as secondary doors from residents' bedrooms to grade or to a
					 balcony, or in certain other areas, when permitted by NFPA 101. Corridor doors
					 to rooms must swing into the room or be recessed so as not to extend into the
					 corridor when open; however, doors ordinarily kept closed may be excepted.