Electronic credentials also provide an extra level of control by mitigating the risks associated with lost or stolen keys.
CASE STUDY: CHEXIT AT THE ROYAL OAKS FRIENDSHIP HOUSE IN ARIZONA
Royal Oaks Friendship House is a 56-room twolevel building for those suffering from memory loss that forms part of a retirement community.
Designing this building meant finding the right balance between the desire for an open, welcoming home-like environment with the need to ensure that the residents suffering from memory loss were safe and secure in the building.
“Safety of the cognitive impaired while allowing them to make choices freely and move from one place to another in their living environment can sometimes be a challenge,” says Dina Capek, Royal Oaks director of Health
Services. “We wanted to have a way to alert the companions when any resident walked from indoor to outdoor spaces.”
Royal Oaks needed a delayed egress solution for all of the facility’s stairwell, exterior and backof-house doors, and also the garden gates.
The Von Duprin CHEXIT delayed egress device was able to provide the facility manager with a secure and safe solution tailored for a memory care environment.
The CHEXIT reduces patient elopement by keeping the door secure for up to 15 seconds while alerting staff of the unauthorised exit attempt.
The device can also easily be integrated with access control systems, working in conjunction with a fire detection system to immediately allow residents to exit in the case of an emergency.
Another company specialising in security solutions through their range of locks, doors, gates and entrance automation is Assa Abloy.
Assa Abloy’s national marketing and communications manager for Australia, Craig Armstrong says “unwanted guests” were not an issue for care and education facilities using their SL500 automatic door. This is thanks to the intrusion protection systems Assa Abloy can package in or retrofit to the door.
“Automatic sliding doors have been appreciated by our customers for years, and we are now taking security to the next level by equipping our sliding doors with a multilevel intrusion protection system.”