The opening of an Army hospital at Fort Riley (Kan.) has been delayed due to the identification of 357 safety issues, according to an Army Times report.
Issues such as fire doors not meeting code requirements and partitions and floors that do not provide fire protection were identified during a pre-final inspection, according to a letter sent from Assistant Secretary of the Army Katherine Hammack to U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran.
Fire protection is particularly important in hospitals, where many patients are unable to move themselves without assistance in the case of emergency.
Despite the delay, hospital staff have commenced their training — including numerous simulated patient scenarios — at the new Fort Riley facility, located roughly 130 miles west of Kansas City, Mo.
"We felt it was important to go ahead and start doing this because we want to be ready to go as soon as the building is ready for us to go into it," Col. Risa Ware, the hospital's commander, told Army Times.
More articles on safety:
Patient safety tool: 7 hand hygiene posters for healthcare facilities
MedStar receives AHRQ contract to design primary care patient safety guide
Putting patient safety and quality data where you might not expect it: Johns Hopkins Medicine goes performance-transparent with dashboards