The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced that the deadline would be pushed back nearly six months, giving facilities until Jan. 1, 2018, to comply with an annual testing requirement for certain doors, according to an article on the HCPro website.
David Wright, director of the CMS Survey and Certification Group, said there had been a fair amount of confusion concerning the change, and he offered some clarifications.
CMS officials are backed away from their claim that smoke barrier doors must be inspected and tested annually.
“[C]onsidering the level of reported misunderstanding of this requirement, CMS has extended the compliance date for this requirement by six months," he said.