Access control for a Seattle dental office means card or fob entry on the doors that need it, with a record of who opened what and every exit still free to open from the inside. ClearMax technicians install it on site as part of the buildout, and each door is tested in front of the practice.
Last updated: November 2026
Which doors should a dental office control?
Fewer than people first assume. A door earns a reader when it protects something, or when a practice needs to know who went through it. The usual candidates:
- The staff or rear entrance, so nobody hands out keys and early arrivals are recorded.
- The main entrance, if it locks on a schedule and staff arrive before patients.
- The IT closet, since everything the practice stores runs through it.
- Rooms holding drugs or records, where a log of who entered is worth having.
Operatories and restrooms rarely need one. Each door adds hardware, wiring and another thing to test, so the list should start small and grow only for a stated reason.
What rule shapes every controlled door here?
Getting out has to stay simple. The 2021 Seattle Fire Code, section 1010.2, says egress doors shall be readily openable from the egress side without the use of a key or special knowledge or effort. Security works on the way in. It cannot get in the way of someone leaving during a fire, and that includes a patient who has never seen the building before and is still groggy from a procedure.
The code does allow electric locks on exit doors, under conditions that decide which hardware gets ordered. Where a sensor releases an electric lock, section 1010.2.12 requires the lock to unlock on loss of power, and requires a manual device marked "PUSH TO EXIT" 40 to 48 inches above the floor and within 5 feet of the door, which keeps the lock released for at least 30 seconds. A separate section covers hardware mounted on the door itself: it must work with one hand and without special knowledge, and it must cut power to the lock immediately. The locking units must also be listed to UL 294 under both sections.
These details are easy to get wrong on a door-by-door basis, because the right answer depends on whether the door is part of an exit path. So each door on the plan gets a line saying what it is, how a person leaves through it, and which section of the code it follows. The building's fire alarm connection is part of that same conversation, where the building has one.
Which lock goes on which door?
| Hardware | How it works | Where it tends to fit |
|---|---|---|
| Electric strike | Releases the latch in the frame; the lever still opens the door from inside | Many interior and staff doors |
| Electrified lever | Controls the lever from the outside, and leaves the inside lever free | Doors where the frame cannot take a strike |
| Magnetic lock | Holds the door shut with a magnet until power is cut | Doors with no better option, following the release rules above |
Two terms come up in every door discussion. "Fail safe" means the door unlocks when power is lost. "Fail secure" means it stays locked from the outside when power is lost, while still opening from the inside. A rear entrance and a closet door may reasonably differ, and the choice belongs in the written plan.
What happens to the doors when the power goes out?
In Seattle this is a practical question, not a theoretical one. In the 2006 windstorm, 49% of City Light's customers lost power; 95% were restored within two days, and full restoration took a week. An office on magnetic locks with no backup would have doors that simply release. So the plan answers three things for each door: what it does in the first minutes of an outage, how long the battery holds it, and how someone secures the office by hand if the outage runs overnight. A mechanical lock with a key held by the owner remains the fallback, and nobody should discover during a storm that it was never fitted.
Cards, fobs or phones?
Cards and fobs are both simple, and most offices pick on preference. A fob on a keyring tends to stay with people; a card fits a badge. Phone credentials are convenient but add a device that can run flat, get replaced or belong to the person and not the practice. Whichever is chosen, three things matter more than the format:
- Each person has their own credential. A shared code gives you a record that says nothing useful.
- Someone at the practice can remove a person the same day they leave, without waiting on anyone.
- The log is easy to read, and the practice decides how long it is kept.
How does access control fit the rest of the buildout?
A door has more parties involved than any other item on the IT plan: the general contractor, the door and frame supplier, the fire alarm contractor where there is one, and the person running the wire. So it gets planned early, with the door hardware schedule next to the drop schedule. The sequence is the same as the rest of the project: plan review, quote from the details provided, wiring during rough-in, hardware at finish, then test and hand off.
Wiring and permits follow their own path, which is worth knowing when reading a schedule. RCW 19.28.400 excludes horizontal cabling used for access control systems from its definition of telecommunications systems, so door wiring does not simply travel with the data cabling on paper. Seattle's electrical permit guide says its Stand-Alone Low-Voltage System permit is used for security and other low-voltage systems, and must be used to install, repair or replace door, gate and similar electrical operator wiring and equipment. For a practice, that mostly means two things: door work gets its own line on the schedule, and the inspection dates for it need to be known before the frames are finished. The cabling page covers the data side.
How is each door proven?
With a witnessed test, door by door, with someone from the practice present and the results written down. For each controlled door:
- A valid credential opens it, and the log records the correct name and time.
- A removed credential does not open it.
- The door opens from the inside with no key, card or special knowledge.
- The release device works as the code section for that door requires, including how long it stays released.
- Cutting power does what the plan says it should.
- The fire alarm connection, where there is one, releases the door.
The practice keeps the signed sheet along with the door list, the credential list and the name of the person who manages them. If a door's behavior changes later, that record is what the next person compares it against.
Can it be added to an existing office?
Yes. Older doors and frames are the variable, because some cannot take a strike without replacing the frame. Photos of each door, inside and out, tell a lot, and they go in with the project details. The quote is built from those. If more work is needed once the frame is opened, it is brought to the practice's attention and the bid is updated. Work is booked outside patient hours, one door at a time, so the office is never left without a way to lock up.
Access control often goes in alongside cameras, because the two together answer "who came in, and when". The camera page covers that side, including where cameras do not belong.
Access control questions from Seattle offices
Do we need a reader on every door?
No. Start with the doors that protect something or need a record, and leave a spare run for one you may add later.
Can the system unlock the front door on a schedule?
Usually, yes. Most systems can release a door during office hours and lock it afterwards. Decide who can override that schedule on a day the office closes early.
What if someone loses a fob?
The practice removes it from the system and issues a new one. That is the main advantage over a key: nobody has to change a lock.
Does this tie in to the fire alarm?
Where the building has one, the plan covers how each electric lock responds to it. The building's fire alarm contractor is part of that conversation.