Nova Scotia Health serves Nova Scotians across 11 regional hospitals. When the organization began examining how entry security was working across its facilities, what they found changed the conversation significantly.
For several months after a January 2025 incident involving an individual armed with a knife injured multiple people at the Halifax Infirmary, Nova Scotia Health had been screening patients and visitors at two emergency departments using handheld wands. The process revealed far more weapons and prohibited items entering those facilities than anyone had initially anticipated. It also created problems of its own. It was invasive, caused queues at entrances where people arrive in distress, and did not reflect the values the organization held around dignity and patient experience.
A conventional walk-through metal detector was trialled next. Secondary searches were still required approximately 90 percent of the time. The volume of false alerts made it unsustainable at any entrance with meaningful foot traffic.
Nova Scotia Health needed a solution that could maintain detection effectiveness and preserve the dignity of people entering care. That combination of requirements led them to Xtract One.
The Deployment of Xtract One’s SmartGateway
SmartGateway deployment began in mid-December 2025 across five regional hospitals, phased according to activity rates and existing security resources. The initial focus was on large regional centres with emergency departments already conducting some form of manual screening. The deployment was funded as part of a $7 million Security Innovation Fund supported by the provincial government and the Nova Scotia Government and Council of Nursing Unions, representing the largest coordinated healthcare weapons detection rollout in Atlantic Canada.
Isaac McGuire, Assistant Manager of Security at Nova Scotia Health, reflected on what the deployment revealed about how the facilities had previously operated: “Historically, hospital access was largely unrestricted. Many entrances were unattended. It was very reasonable that someone could enter and move freely between floors, going through public areas, with intentions unknown.”
That changed. And the change was measurable in ways that extended well beyond what the system physically intercepted at the door.
What This Means for Healthcare Security
Nova Scotia Health’s experience confirms something health authorities across Canada and the United States have been grappling with: the scale of the weapons-carrying population entering healthcare facilities is consistently larger than manual screening methods reveal, and conventional detection technology cannot address it without creating new operational problems in the process.
The full case study covers the deployment in detail, including how Nova Scotia Health structured the phasing process, what the operational data showed across sites, and what the experience looked like for security staff and clinical teams on the ground.