Sanford hospital installs metal detector at emergency room entrance

FARGO — Sanford Medical Center in Fargo is beefing up security.

It is the first in the Sanford system to install a metal detector. It has been put into place at the public entrance of the emergency department.

"There was no catalyst, there wasn't an incident that propelled us to go forward with this, this was just part of our overall planning to make our environments more safe for our staff and patients," said Jason Nelson, the director of facilities at the hospital.

The device is called Evolv Express, and it was installed about a month ago. The focus is to detect concealed weapons. Patients and visitors won't be required to empty change, keys and phones out of their pockets. It will show the security guard where the weapon is located.

"Since this system has been installed we have detected several types of weapons, and at that point we ask the visitor to leave and come back in without those," Nelson said.

The hospital chose the ER door over the main entrance, because the facility is a Level 1 Trauma center which can bring in patients involved in more violent crimes than anywhere else in the hospital.

The idea is to put another metal detector like this one at the main entrance in the near future.

"It works as a deterrent. We have people that walk up and see that there is a system in place and they turn around and leave," Nelson said.

Similar metal detectors will also be installed at Sanford's ERs in Sioux Falls, Bismarck, and Bemidji in the coming days and weeks.