Access control, hygiene, and increasing requirements for the safety of people, alongside sustainability, are key concerns for most care homes today.
Managers and owners can struggle with maintaining a balance between having a user-friendly, welcoming building, and a safe, secure facility. Well-planned access solutions can ensure that users and occupiers can enter and exit, and get from place to place, securely, safely, and easily. Gilgen Door Systems has been working with care homes to ensure they have an access solution that meets their needs.
While traditionally, manual doors have been the norm – due largely to their cost-effectiveness – Gilgen says they can ‘very hard to open’, are easily left open, resulting in increased energy loss, and can pose security risks. In addition, many users, including children, the elderly, the disabled, and even people with pushchairs or carrying bags, experience problems due to the physical effort required to open them – a problem exacerbated by heavy manual door closers or poor access. Gilgen has been replacing manual doors in care homes with automatic door openers, in the process ‘providing huge benefits, such as safe contact-free access, and uninterrupted passage, together with security options that integrate seamlessly with existing systems’.
Gilgen doors and operators for care homes provide residents, nurses and visitors with unimpeded access. The company says: “DDA-compliant automatic doors have given freedom to people who would otherwise need to rely on help from others, while their ability to interface with existing security systems has meant seamless integration. Some have opted for new automatic sliding entrance systems. These all-glass doors allow more natural light to filter through, and give uninterrupted views, enabling residents to see friends and family arriving.”
Although these automatic doors give access for all, Gilgen emphasises that they have ‘discreet functions that ensure security and safety’. Visitors wishing to pass through require authorisation from a central control point, while the doors are programmed to ‘fail safe’ in the event of power failure, allowing staff to check resident safety. Technologically advanced electronics housed in the operators constantly check door safety elements, while their contact-free design is said to create a more hygienic environment, since there is no need to touch surfaces, helping to prevent the spread of germs and bacteria.
Gilgen adds: “Automatic doors, if designed and working properly, provide an excellent solution. They also satisfy appropriate legislation, such as the DDA, Building Regulations (Part M and B), Health & Safety at Work Act: 1974, BS7036:1996, BS 7273-4:2007, and BS8300.”
