Hospital Elevator In Which Injury Occurred Had Problems

Elevator World

Welcome to the Elevator World News Podcast. This week’s news podcast is sponsored by elevatorbooks.com: www.elevatorbooks.com HOSPITAL ELEVATOR IN WHICH INJURY OCCURRED HAD PROBLEMS An elevator at John Peter Smith Hospital (JPS) in Fort Worth, Texas, in which a female hospital employee was injured on January 18 had a history of maintenance and safety problems dating back to 2015, according to public records obtained by the Star-Telegram. The elevator, which is out of service, had been out of service at least four times in the year prior to the incident. In 2015, it was found to have undersized hoist ropes and a door-close pressure system that exceeded the 30-lb. limit. The pressure problem also involved three additional elevators. The source found the hospital’s 47 elevators were out of service 42 times between January 2018 to January 2019, and that one other person suffered a serious injury in May 2018 when a garage elevator stopped approximately 3 in. below the floor. JPS paid the OEM contracted to maintain its elevators a US$150,000 down payment to fix the garage elevators, but it is unclear whether that ever happened. JPS officials have publicly posted letters to the OEM that emphasize how critical the elevators are to hospital operations and accuse the OEM of having “disregard for urgency” in fixing problems. The OEM, meanwhile, contends it has been “kept in the dark” by hospital officials about what exactly happened in the most recent incident and criticized JPS for expressing its concerns “through the media.” Image credit: Pixabay To read the full transcript of today's podcast, visit: elevatorworld.com/news Subscribe to the Podcast: iTunes│Google Play|SoundCloud│Stitcher│TuneIn