This section of our website is provided to help you match common security concerns with solutions in buildings associated with all types of Senior Living: Independent, Assisted, and Senior Care/Nursing. Security concerns are generally categorized in terms of protecting people and proplerty while maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements such as fire & life safety, accessibility (ADA), etc. The examples shown are a small subset of the overall solution set, but they are representative of the products and services used to enhance security in Senior Living facilities.
Independent Living: Any housing arrangement designed exclusively for seniors, generally those aged 55 and over. These facilities offer typcially offer small housing units or apartments as well as community activities and dining options.
Assisted Living: A residential option for seniors who want or need help with daily activities such as cooking meals, getting to the restroom in the middle of the night, and housekeeping while allowing the privacy of a small housing unit or apartment of their own.
Senior Care/Nursing: Used when round-the-clock help is needed for eating, dressing, or other daily activities.
Main Entrance
Do your doors automatically open for easy accessibility?
Are entrance doors equipped with ADA push button equipment of automatically open doors for those who need assistance?
Are your tenants equipped with keyless options for easy accessibility to the building?
How does a guest/visitor communicate with the main office or tenant?
Are your front doors functioning properly and securing at all times?
Hallways & Bathrooms
Do the hallways have a protective and rugged coverings to prevent damage from wheelchairs and other moving objects?
Do the hallways have protective and supportive items to help tenants with support?
Do private living quarters and community bathrooms offer easy access to personal items, such as toilet paper, while maintaining a GREEN Solution?
Elopement
Senior living elopement is necessary when a patient who is mentally,physically,chemically,emotionally and/or cognitively impaired who wanders away (either walks, runs, escapes, etc.) by exiting the facility unsupervised, unnoticed and/or prior to scheduled discharge. Products within this page provide solutions to the facility to help monitor exit doors and keep the patients safe.
Are exit doors equipped with alarmed devices to alert staff upon unwanted egress?
Are door prop alarms on exit doors to assure exit doors remain closed?
Personal Records/HIPAA
Are personal records secure at all times during the day?
Does management know who has access to the personal records?
Does management know how many keys and/or passwords are available for existing systems?
Doors & Door Hardware
Does your facility have a preventative maintenance program to assure all locks are operating and securing doors properly?
Do the automatic doors that are accessed by disabled and elderly detect their presence in the opening and delay closing until clear?
Have the manual closing doors with hydraulic door closers been tested to assure they meet ADA low resistance opening effort standards?
Are walls and doors protected from damage and scarring from moving objects such as wheelchairs?
Is hardware treated with an anti-microbial finish to fight infectious disease?
Electronic Access Control
Is staff alerted by unauthorized ingress or egress to restricted areas or private living quarters?
Has biometric (finger print or facial recognition) been considered to avoid unauthorized loaning of access cards or keys?
Does staff carry ID Badges/Access Control Credentials capable of producing an audit trail?
Are other entrances equipped with access control products where key cards or other similar items are used to access the building?
Has a video surveillance system audit been done in the past year?
If video surveillance is in place, is it being monitored throughout the day?
Apartment/Unit Security
Do tenants have easy access to their private living quarters?
Do the locks have an audit trail in case an incident occurs?
Do all doors for private living quarters secure when a tenant exits?
Do tenants have a secured location for valuables inside their private living quarters?
Personal Emergency Reporting Systems
Does the facility have notification alerts of an individual emergency within the private living quarters?
Does the facility have notification alerts of an individual emergency within common areas?
Medication Security
Are all medications secured and accounted for throughout the day?
How are medications delivered to tenants within the facility?
How are tenants securing medication within their private living quarters?
How are medications monitored which need refrigeration?
Fire and Life Safety
In case of power loss, are doors equipped with an illumination option to view exits with smoke in the building?
Are the doors equipped with panic hardware or fire exit hardware?
How do you keep a door open but release for a fire?
Key Control
Does management know who has the key to every private living quarter?
How does management keep track of all keys?
Are spare keys stored in a locked cabinet with record and receipt of issued keys?
What steps are taken if someone loses a key?
Can keys be duplicated?
How hard or long does it take to rekey a lock?
Is management faced with a cumbersome task of physically changing locks or keeping track of which tenants have returned their key?
Surveillance
Does your facility monitor its grounds with CCTV?
Are events that transpire on the grounds in the facility being recorded?
Complementary Items
Are doors equipped with proper hinges that reduce maintenance costs due to their longevity?
Are door openings equipped with low rise thresholds to accommodate walkers or wheelchairs?
Do doors provide power door operators (actuators) to push for door operation, or wave for door operation?
Are doors equipped with electronic access control items such as electric strikes, magnetic locks, and necessary equipment to power such items?
