Halifax Health hospitals get new metal detectors as extra security measure

Halifax Health hospitals are getting new metal detectors. 

Those devices are just like what you’d see anywhere else – you just put any metal items on the table and walk through the arch. If you have any guns, knives, or other weapons on you, you’ll have to take them back out to the car.

Halifax Health Chief Operating Officer Alberto Tineo says the metal detectors actually arrived a few weeks before they were installed.

"We had to assemble all of them together. It just happened to be this week since we put them all together and started deploying them," explained Tineo. 

Although the new metal detectors were installed just a week after a woman shot and killed her husband at Advent Health in Daytona, the installation was not a response to that shooting.

Halifax says it’s been working on its new security protocols since an active shooter incident at the hospital in 2014. 

"It just emphasizes why we need them. It’s unfortunate this is the way of the world these days," said Tineo.

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There are other security measures in place too, The hospital also has metal detecting wands to check over more thoroughly if needed. 

Years ago, Halifax shut down some of the perimeters and now pushes visitors through specific entrances and exits.

It also installed a visitor badging system.

"So every time a visitor comes in, they have to stop at the information desk, give their identity, and have a purpose to visit," explained Tineo. 

Of course, Halifax isn’t the only hospital system that uses metal detectors. Orlando Health told FOX 35 it uses metal detectors. 

You’ll see them at some hospitals operated by both Health First and BayCare Health Systems

HCA’s website has a policy outline on its website for metal detectors, but we didn’t get an answer as to which of its facilities have them.

Halifax says you’ll now find them at all its hospitals.

Right now, the hospital is still waiting on an X-ray machine, so they’re having everyone hand in their bags so a security officer can look through by hand before giving it back.