While some states are putting workplace reopening plans on pause, other states such as Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Iowa, and Arkansas, are experiencing a drastic decrease in COVID cases and are returning to the office.

States such as California and Florida are not quite ready to enter the next phase in their plans for reopening. According to the CDC, the interruption in normal work operations is an opportunity to ensure you have a COVID-19 plan in place. The CDC website states, “All employers should implement and update as necessary a plan that is specific to your workplace, identifies all areas and job tasks with potential exposures to COVID-19, and includes control measures to eliminate or reduce such exposures.”

End of trip facilities (EOT) have become commonplace for commercial buildings in the city center of Australia and New Zealand, with many including bicycle storage as well as shower facilities, changing rooms, and lockers.

Businesses are reopening across the country, bringing a sense of normality with outdoor dining at restaurants and root touch-ups at the salon. However, there is one past time entertainment that many are waiting to enjoy once again, Professional Sports.

As many know, Nursing Managers have a lot on their plate. They are held accountable for setting and reporting on budgeting goals, ensuring quality patient care, and managing a staff of nurses. If there are two things Nursing Managers need more of they are time and money. A solution for Nursing Managers to save on both is by adopting keyless and wireless electronic locks to safeguard equipment, medication, and patient records.

As hospitals have experienced a lack of capacity to accommodate for a pandemic while spending millions on temporary hospitals, using modular furniture can save both time and money with their capability to move from room to room. Investing in digital locks now can save money for future situations, such as pandemic pop-up hospitals. The portability of medical carts and furniture can be used outdoors, cleaned, and quickly brought back into the hospital facility.

Q: Hi Hans Schippers, first of all thanks for your time and how nice of you to let me interview you. Could you tell me about Ceha Europe and the projects you do?
A: Ceha Europe is part of a Turkish parent company with almost 1000 employees worldwide. We are the European subsidiary company. We have been based in the Netherlands for 10 years now, with sales mainly in the Benelux and also in England and Germany. I am the manager of the Dutch branch.

Q: And what kind of projects do you mainly do?
A: Especially when we talk about Digilock, we talk about locker projects. Locker cabinets in which we put Digilock locks we have been doing for about 3.5 years now and that is going very well.

Q: So, have you been working with Digilock for 3.5 years, or did that come about later?
A: Yes, we have been working intensively with Digilock for 3.5 years now. I have been working at Ceha Europe for more than 4 years now. When Geert van Dijk started working at Digilock, we started talking about a partnership and that has been going very well for the last few years. We do nice projects and have a small stock of the locks that we install here ourselves.

Q: How nice to hear. Does this also mean that you have good experiences with Digilock?
A: Yes, it's going very well overall, it's a very nice group of people. I also think that partnerships should suit one another, focused on the people and the culture. That has been our experience.

Q: So nice to hear it’s a good match. You mentioned earlier the projects Ceha Europe did with Digilock. Do you have a good example of this?
A: Yes, recently we did a very large project in Belgium for the Hasselt Police Office. Every week we have projects of 40 or 50 Digilock locks. 

Pictures of these projects can be found at the bottom of the interview. Received from Hans Schippers - Ceha Europe.

As tech companies and colleges are continuing remote work and online education until 2021, the reality of working at a kitchen table for another 6 months may be unappealing at best. Even though studies have shown productivity of remote workers can result in an additional three weeks of total working hours more than their ‘in-office’ colleagues, there is also research that suggests remote employees have a difficult time with work-life balance.

As hospitals are experiencing the effects of a pandemic, the healthcare industry realizes the key to managing treatment at scale is by designing for the future. Successful preparedness design for hospitals starts at the architectural planning stage, especially with engineering ingenuity, such as the flexibility to expand and contract as needed. Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, for example, can easily convert one wing of the hospital into a negative-pressure-ward, which can responsibly house an additional 32 patients.

As hospitals and healthcare facilities work to flatten the curve of covid-19 patients, unused space such as parking lots and hotels are being utilized as makeshift hospitals. This creative solution to a lack of patient accommodation brings with it concern over supply security and patient privacy. Hospital supplies that are used to treat patients and keep healthcare workers protected are at a higher risk of theft, misplacement and multi-contact contamination. In recent news, New Orleans experienced a worst-case scenario when a public safety director of a local convention center was charged with stealing 80 N-95 masks, a piece of protective gear, while the center was being transformed into a pop-up hospital. Another incident of mask theft occurred in Reno, Nevada where hundreds of masks were stolen out of a medical cart by a hospital employee, showing the immense need of monitoring protective gear so that supplies can be shared across the hospital according to greatest risk.

Health and fitness studios looking to use this downtime in business to make a big upgrade can enter for a chance to win over $17k worth of ultra-premium Digilock Axis keypad locks.

PETALUMA, April 17, 2020 — Digilock, the global leader in the design and manufacturing of high-performance electronic lock solutions, announced today they are giving away roughly $17,000 worth of ultra-premium Digilock Axis keypad locks to one health and fitness studio in the US (Florida, New York Excluded, Alaska, Hawaii Excluded). The winner will be chosen at random on April 30, 2020, and notified on or before May 5, 2020. Those interested can go to digilock.com to submit their entry.

President and CEO of Digilock, Asil Gokcebay, said, “It all started when our sales team received calls from some of our health and fitness studio partners saying they wanted to use this downtime to upgrade their facility. It got me thinking, ‘What about our other partners who are suffering financially?’ I wanted to help.”

For 40 years, Digilock has worked alongside partners in the health and fitness industry. During these uncertain times, many of our health club friends are experiencing financial hardship and are unable to keep up with the competition by investing in upgrades. Digilock knows a small update can make a huge impact, which is why they are elevating the locker room experience for one health and fitness studio with a generous locking system giveaway.

The Prize

Digilock Axis electronic locks made to retrofit any current locking system.