Canadian hospital invests in access control from SALTO

Espanola General Hospital in Ontario, Canada has selected SALTO to upgrade its security management

Located in Northern Ontario, Espanola General Hospital is a modern health care facility ,which provides a broad array of health care and medical programs and services to the local population catchment area of around 12,000 residents. These include primary, preventive and therapeutic care, acute care, long-term care and assisted living, as well as management of senior's housing, all on one site. The hospital required a highly secure and reliable solution that could be customised to meet their specific security needs.

"As the first Canadian hospital to specify a SALTO access control system, the XS4 solution is ideal for Espanola General Hospital," says Amir Zouak, SALTO Systems Inc. Vice President (Canada).

"Working in consultation with the hospital, we have designed a highly secure and flexible access control system to meet all their needs, and this is replacing all the cut keyed mechanical locks and electronic and mechanical pin pad locks across the facility," Zouak continues.

Smart, secure and innovative, XS4 requires no hard wiring and provides a totally wire free networked locking solution enabling the hospital to turn their existing doors into fully featured access control doors without compromising comfort, convenience, security or control. In addition, the many advantages of the SALTO Virtual Network (SVN) provides them with the functionality to update, restrict or delete locks and key cards remotely as required and access profiles can be changed rapidly to accommodate any security situation.

The hospital replaced their master-keyed mechanical locks with the SALTO XS4 electronic proximity access control system.

Eric Parlowe, Manager of Environmental Services at Espanola General Hospital comments: "Until recently after office hours it has been the hospital's practice to have a master key available to the charge nurse on duty. This key is then used to access a variety of areas as required including health records, supply and equipment stores.

Following a number of issues with this system, and given that our assets and staff safety are of primary concern, I was charged with finding a security solution that would save us from re-keying the entire facility if a master key was lost.

I conducted extensive research and found the SALTO system. It is absolutely perfect for our needs as it addresses every concern we have regarding security, lost keys, changing access authority for staff and ease of use.

Another feature that makes the SALTO system superior is its expandability. As the hospital grows and changes, we can add additional SALTO locks easily and quickly. In short the SALTO system is superior to any system I've seen. The locks are top quality, system management is easy, and it's expandable and does not require the hard wiring of every door with a security lock."

Amir Zouak concludes: "It's a great compliment to our technology that Espanola has chosen us to provide sophisticated electronic access control within key areas of their hospital.

In short, the SALTO system is superior to any system I've seen.

Unmatched flexibility is the aim of the XS4 range and to achieve this they are now replacing existing locks in offices, health records, the finance department, stores, maintenance areas, laboratories, physiotherapy, diagnostic imaging, clinic operations, acute care, the teleconference room, as well as in all hallways that are designated for staff only access.

Once the project is complete, the flexibility of their new SALTO access control system means the hospital will be able to get the maximum benefit from the technology, with no worries about master key issues, and provide a comfortable and secure environment for all its users."