Published: Wed, Aug 1, 2018
When a local East Coast hospital first introduced access control in 1993, the campus was comprised of 14 buildings and roughly 20,000 staff members. At that time, the hospital installed 34 access-controlled doors and two video surveillance cameras which sufficiently secured the property and staff.
Today, the hospital has nearly tripled in size and continues to grow as it welcomes new remote hospitals to its system. However, as new locations were added, the hospital was unable to keep up the momentum with its security systems. Each remote hospital used a different system and integrator, often using older technology that required an upgrade.
How to create a unified hospital system
To help the hospital adapt to its growing security demands, Johnson Controls was tasked with unifying the entire hospital network under a single access control card technology. To do this, the company designed a five-year plan to merge all hospital locations onto the same system. Working closely with hospital administrators, Johnson Controls set up a centralized database and management process, which leveraged a universal card technology to help make supervising permissions simple for hospital clinicians and staff.
The goal is for clinicians to be able to travel to any of the hospital system’s locations and gain access using one key card, instead of needing new badging or calling security to enter. In addition to efficiencies gained, the technology will help make the hospital system more secure. Not only will the technology prevent unauthorized visitor access, but also it restricts employee access to sensitive areas and tracks entry/exit times by employee or department.
Efficiency holds the key to healthcare success
The universal card technology is a key part of providing a comprehensive security strategy that will encompass the entire hospital system. Most importantly, the technology is scalable to meet the continued growth of the hospital with the addition of new properties, wings and staff. As the hospital and card database continue to grow, the universal card technology will be able to keep up with the demands of the hospital’s network – ultimately providing extreme value to clinicians and staff.
A hospital is no longer a single building, but rather an ecosystem that is comprised of clinics, medical office buildings and acute care hospitals, among other remote locations. A comprehensive security approach has lowered risk for hospitals by providing better visibility of staff movements across the entire system. Working closely and collaboratively, a trusted partner will understand your facility and help you scale your technology as your operations grow. To learn more about Johnson Controls access control solutions, visit here.