This case study discusses the successful installation of Von Duprin’s Quiet Electric Latch (QEL) in a healthcare facility. Louder environments are known to increase heart rates and create stress, so Allegion has reduced the QEL’s noise level to create more peaceful environments. Allegion seeks to provide productivity enhancing solutions to customers who value security and durability.
Below is an example of how the QEL helped lower the noise level in a hospital.
Customer overview
A hospital in Rochester, NY, with 739 beds, was looking for ways to keep the noise down in the building to create a more comfortable atmosphere for its patients and staff.
With a maintenance staff of 185, only seven of those workers deal with door hardware.
Challenge
Doors with electric latches produce a lot of noise…especially at nighttime when patients are trying to sleep. Hearing that KLUNK every time someone enters a doorway can become irritating and even delay patients’ healing time.
This hospital needed something durable, but also quieter than the regular ELs so that they could provide the patients with the best care possible.
The Allegion solution
When the QEL was introduced to this hospital, the maintenance staff approved of this solution almost immediately after hearing the difference. The manager of the lock shop weighed it against all competitors and stated, “The alternatives just didn’t have the soft touch this hospital needed to keep the noise level down.”
The push pad even retracts when activated to eliminate that extra KLUNK you hear when applying force on the push pad. The QEL also requires less power, creating the ability to wire up to 800 feet when 12 gauge wire is used. That’s four times more wire run than any other EL. Finally, the QEL can be installed without changing previous EL power supplies.
Result
The installation was straight forward and incredibly simple. It took about an hour per pair of door to install the brand new QELs.
Starting in the pediatric wing, there are 24 patient pads with doors that are using QELs. They will be moving to other patient areas once the first wing is complete.
The reason for installing QELs was to keep noise level down, and that is precisely what they do. The hospital can really recognize the difference from having a regular EL retract to having a QEL retract. The soft, quiet entrance is what was
desired and the staff was not disappointed.
Eventually, this hospital would like all of its patient pad doors to have QELs in order to keep the patients at ease and the whole hospital quiet and peaceful.
