Page 104 - Security Today, July/August 2021

"Door hardware, keypads and readers are among the most important surfaces that require frequent germ transmission prevention, cleaning and disinfection."
By Tom Morgan
Rethinking Your Doors and Hardware
3 ways your patients, staff and visitors expect you to upgrade your facility now
Healthcare Security
LeoWolfert/Shutterstock.com
The health and social crises of this past year have increased demand for enhanced safety, accessibility, compliance, and convenience. Healthcare environments in particular face unique challenges, as they must balance these requirements while providing a welcoming and healing environment for their patients, staff and visitors. With these expectations at the fore- front of everyone’s mind, now is the time to rethink how you can enhance the safety, security, efficiency, and overall experience of your spaces by upgrading your doors and hardware.
Reducing Germ Transmission
Take a minute and think about how many door openings you walk through each day within your building, how many levers and knobs you use to open doors, and how many times you push on a door to enter or exit a space. Now multiply that number by how many nurses, environmental service workers, security officers, visitors, patients and others, encounter those same touchpoints.
How can you mitigate the spread of germs with some of the most frequently accessed touchpoints in a building? Consider upgrading to low-touch or touchless hardware to reduce the number of people
handling levers, pulls, exit devices and other parts of the door open- ing. Low-touch mechanical door hardware offers an easy-to-install and cost effective option. With just the hook of a forearm or pull with a shoe, arm and foot pulls are a simple accessory that can be added to any new or pre-existing aluminum, metal or wood door.
Push/pull paddle trim enables hands-free movement with the push of a hip or pull of the arm and is a great option for patient rooms, restrooms and virtually any door. Another product ideal for rest- rooms, nursing rooms or quiet rooms is the status indicator lock. This allows you to see if the space is occupied and the door is locked before touching the handle.
For high-traffic areas like entrances, cross-corridors and rest- rooms, a wave-to-open switch paired with a low-energy door opera- tor provides a completely hands-free experience. For environments where wheelchairs and walkers are common, adding a motion sensor will allow the door to remain open long enough for people to pass through.
In addition to creating a desire to reduce or eliminate touchpoints, the global health crisis has also emphasized the importance of thor- ough sanitization procedures for the most commonly touched areas of your healthcare facility. Door hardware, keypads and readers are among the most important surfaces that require frequent germ trans- mission prevention, cleaning and disinfection.
Adding Intelligent Access Control
Let’s take a tour of your healthcare facility. Visualize yourself at the perimeter of your property. Now enter your building and head towards your office or a meeting room space. How many door open- ings have you walked by and how many of them are considered gen- eral access, high security or even a lockdown area?
There is no “one size fits all” when it comes to controlling access. While access control is a major challenge that demands quality, code compliance, design, and functionality, there are an array of different technologies to meet your requirements and budget. Specialized locking solutions can be tailored to various security requirements through a wide range of technologies and devices. Innovative solu- tions like Intelligent Wi-Fi and real-time wireless make it easier and more economical than ever to extend access control to more doors and more applications.
It is your responsibility to keep not only the people within your healthcare facility safe and secure, but assets and data as well. Phar- maceutical distribution, storage cabinets, employee lockers, even server cabinets and their sensitive data are prone to theft. These small doorways can be protected with a new generation of cabinet locks that integrate seamlessly with to the building’s security management system, allowing access to be monitored and tracked for security and compliance.
Another option to consider for an easy and affordable upgrade is
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