This hospital did not inspect its sliding glass doors on a daily basis, resulting in liability for personal injuries when the doors closed on a business visitor.  COURT OF APPEALS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1996.

   Sliding glass doors leading in and out of a hospital’s emergency room must be inspected daily to prevent mechanical malfunctions leading to personal injuries, the Court of Appeals of South Carolina has ruled. In a recent case, the doors closed on a paramedic, seriously injuring her shoulder, and she successfully sued.

   According to the court, a personal injury case stemming from the malfunction of a mechanical device in a healthcare facility is evaluated differently by the courts than a slip-and-fall case. When there has been a slip-and-fall in a healthcare facility, the facility is not liable for payment of damages for personal injury to a patient, family member, business visitor or other patron, unless the facility had some prior knowledge of the situation which caused the fall to occur. This means that, for a healthcare facility to be held responsible for injury from a fall due to a foreign substance on the floor, the injured party must be able to prove the facility knew or should have known of the foreign substance on the floor, and must be able to prove there was sufficient time and opportunity to remove the hazard before the injuries occurred.

   On the other hand, in a negligence lawsuit over the malfunction of a mechanical device, sliding glass doors for example, a court will require a healthcare facility to pay personal injury damages if the facility did not follow the manufacturer’s recommended frequency of maintenance inspections, whether or not anyone actually knew of a problem beforehand. A court can assume if there was failure to inspect the equipment as specified by the manufacturer that such failure was the cause of the injuries. Force vs. Hospital, 471 S.E. 2d 714 (S.C. App., 1996).