Uniting SA is a non-profit organisation dedicated to building stronger communities in South Australia. With a team of over 1,000 volunteers and staff, UnitingSA delivers programs across aged care, community, disability, mental health and employment, and currently helps over 12,000 people.
One of UnitingSA’s initiatives is the West Lakes facility, which combines Aged Care and Retirement Living in a single site. The building has two floors of residential aged care accommodation – with private rooms, shared lounges, a library and bookable spaces, a chef-led kitchen and 24-hour care. The building’s top floor houses independent retirement living apartments, which have their own separate entrance and lift access. The ground floor has a commercial area, café, reception, parking and gardens.
access points
retirement living apartments on Level 4
It was a pleasure to help UnitingSA achieve their access goals in partnership with SALTO Certified installer Voda Group. The system enables UnitingSA to manage a diverse facility securely, while enabling their resident’s freedom and independence.
When planning a facility with a wide range of services, for a diverse cohort of people, managing access can be a challenge.
The West Lakes facility presents unique access challenges. They must offer a home environment for residents with 24/7 care, and have back-of-house and staff-only areas that need tight control to protect residents, staff, visitors and suppliers. There is a constantly changing user base.
Vivian Castro, West Lakes’ Operations Manager, explains: “Our top priority is the safety of our residents – they must feel secure in their home. But they must also be able to welcome their family and friends and use our wonderful shared facilities. Operational efficiency is important too – our staff need rapid and easy access to the areas they need to do their job and provide care to our residents.”
In order to meet these challenges, UnitingSA chose a smart access control system from Salto, implemented by Salto Certified Partner, Voda Group.
Vivian says: “With the Salto system, every user has a fob – worn as a wristband or around the neck. The fob is programmed to give each person access to all, and only, the areas for which they are authorised.”
Aged care residents can enter their own room and shared spaces, but not staff areas or other residents’ rooms.
In the retirement village, a resident’s fob gives them access to the undercover parking, the lift to the top floor, and the shared facilities. If they book an area – say they are holding a family barbecue - the fob is automatically programmed via the reservation system to give them access just for the time they have booked.
Staff members’ access is based on their role - the medical team, for example, can access the medication room, and registered nurses can enter patient’s rooms at night-time for emergencies. If staff are working across two sites, the same single fob can give them access to both. “Our staff are very happy”, says Vivian. “They have easy access without carrying a lot of keys.”
Operationally, Salto is simple and cost effective to manage: “New residents and staff get their fob very quickly, and if a fob is lost, we call the IT team to instantly revoke its accesses. That ensures we have no security exposures”, Vivian explains, “and there’s no need for the costly business of changing locks.”
Voda Group engaged with UnitingSA right from the planning stages of the new facility. Paul Turley, General Manager at Voda Group says: “Once we understood the requirements, we recommended Salto as the right fit for the development.” Rob Evans, Voda Group’s account manager adds: “We proposed a design-to-construct solution, using Salto’s data-on-card technology.”
The solution uses a mix of wired and wireless online doors, with Salto XS4 Mini locks on aged care residents’ rooms, and XS4 One on the common areas. The solution is integrated to the fire panel and the lift and to the property management system (PMS) for booking shared facilities. The audit function shows which fobs have been used where for additional resident safety.
Salto through the residents’ eyes
Aged care resident Noreen Kitchen loves the fob-based access: “It’s a brilliant system – I can lock my room, I can visit other floors, I can help other residents by collecting the papers for them. We can move around, but we all feel really safe here.”
It’s a view echoed by John Wotton, a retirement living resident: “I feel very secure here, which has been particularly important since COVID. But I can still easily have visitors – I have an intercom to let them in, then the system only allows them to come directly up in the lift to my floor.”
- Secure - residents feel safe knowing that only authorised visitors can enter the premises.
- Peace of mind - families know that their loved ones are secure, with no unwanted visitors and reduced risk of infection spread.
- Easy to use - staff and residents have a single smart fob to access all the areas they need. It is a seamless keyless experience that replaces traditional mechanical keys.
- Lower risk - lost smart fobs can be tracked, revoked and quickly and easily replaced, reducing security risk.
- Ease of management – single online smart access management platform to issue new fobs, assign and revoke authorisations, view audit trail.
- Efficient – a single fob streamlines operations. Access can be granted rapidly for new authorised users, and revoked just as quickly when a user leaves, or a fob is lost.
- Granular access control - staff access can be managed by role, so that restricted areas can only be accessed by authorised staff.
- Staff engagement – employees love the Salto system because it saves them time and is easy to use.
- Resident safety - audit trail helps shows which residents have been where, ensuring safety and emergency-ready protocols can be managed.
- Wearable fob – a wristband or round-the-neck fob is easy to wear, and always there.
- Integration - Salto integrates with fire, lift and shared facility bookings, for safety and convenience.
- Cost effective – UnitingSA can project how the Salto system will save them money over time, especially as it is installed in more facilities.
- Support – in working with Salto, UnitingSA have the peace of mind of knowing they have a knowledgeable local partner and a world-leading access control provider
Uniting SA is a non-profit organisation dedicated to building stronger communities in South Australia. With a team of over 1,000 volunteers and staff, UnitingSA delivers programs across aged care, community, disability, mental health and employment, and currently helps over 12,000 people. One of UnitingSA’s initiatives is the West Lakes facility, which combines Aged Care and Retirement Living in a single site.
