TO SECURITY A UNIFIED APPROACH

Improving patient, staff experiences from the front door to the bedside

By Karl Vancl

All aspects of healthcare have been impacted by COVID-19, creating challenges but also, as noted in Deloitte’s 2022 Global Health Care Outlook, “a powerful opportunity for the healthcare sector to reinvent itself.”

Video surveillance technologies have advanced during the pandemic with digitization, opening opportunities for healthcare organizations to use data gathered by video management systems (VMS) in combination with data from access control systems (ACS), automatic licence plate readers (ALPR), communication systems, sensors and more to protect buildings and people, and improve operational efficiency and the patient experience.

Increasing Operational Efficiency

Patient throughput is the primary measure of efficiency in a healthcare facility, and optimizing it falls across many departments. Unifying physical security solutions to centralize data can help security teams better function and information technology (IT) teams mitigate cyber threats. When data is centralized through a unified physical security platform and viewed in a single pane of glass, opportunities to respond faster and more adeptly can reach across departments.

The sheer number of false alarms in a healthcare setting, both at the bedside and overhead, has created a concerning desensitization that directly impacts the capability of security resources. The Canadian Medical Association has reported that 85 to 90 per cent of hospital alerts are either false alarms or don’t require intervention.

Unifying security cameras, door sensors, access events and Internet of Things (IoT) devices can reduce the number of false alarms, while viewing that data centrally and in real-time can help teams respond faster to true alarms. The reduction in noise and alarms also benefits caregivers, staff, patients and visitors to the hospital.

A unified physical security platform can also help security teams intervene in the event of violence against staff or patients, recognize licence plates of delivery trucks, visitors and staff to permit or deny access, or secure medicine cabinets. It can even help teams maintain compliance with regula- tions and improve facility planning to increase patient throughput and staff satisfaction. When communication management capabilities are part of a unified platform, clinicians and staff can see and speak to patients remotely to validate they have scheduled appointments before granting them access to a building.

For larger hospital complexes, federating systems can centralize multiple campus views into one security operations centre, increasing the operational efficiency of physical security teams on a large scale.

Mitigating Cyber Threats

As healthcare organizations migrate sensitive data to new networks, add IoT devices to their networks and enable remote work and mobile devices, the risk of cybersecurity breaches grows along with the larger ‘attack surface.’ For the twelfth consecutive year, the healthcare industry has the highest data breach costs, according to risk management platform Upguard, paying an average $10.1 million US for a data breach in 2022, up more than nine per cent from 2021. The information accessed through these data breaches is extremely sensitive and needs to be thoroughly protected.

Physical security and information security are linked. There’s no difference in the result whether a hacker accesses an organization’s server rooms physically or through a video surveillance camera, piece of HVAC equipment or employee’s laptop. A collaborative IT and physical security team can develop a comprehensive program based on a common understanding of risk, responsibilities, strategies and practices.

To meet the challenges of a changing healthcare landscape, organizations must modernize their security infrastructure, working with unified core systems like VMS, ACS, ALPR and communications management on an open platform built from the ground up as one seamless solution.

A Safer Work Environment

Hospitals are inherently complex environments in which the needs of all stakeholders are equally important. One of the greater challenges the healthcare industry is facing right now is workplace violence. Four global health organizations surveyed their mem- bers and found almost 60 per cent had seen an increase in reported cases of violence against their workforces during the pandemic. The U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics reported that workers in healthcare and social services experience the highest rates of injuries caused by workplace violence and are five times as likely to suffer a workplace violence injury than workers overall.

This disturbing trend, along with sick leaves, absenteeism and resignations, is leaving departments and units with skeleton staffs. At the same time, demand for healthcare is consistent and rising, and no matter the staff-to-patient ratio, proper care must be delivered.

When security systems are unified, operators in control centres can pool data and leverage multiple sources to see different angles and understand all aspects of an incident. This makes investigating incidents, such as unruly visitors, quicker. It also streamlines processes like managing access badges for staff, making them simpler.

Having real-time views of data from multiple VMS and ACS centralized on a single viewing pane also facilitates quicker responses to help deescalate violent or stressful situations, offering better protection to staff, patients and visitors. A unified security platform can include interactive mapping capabilities, too. These are important in helping staff visualize events, locate security devices and operators close by, pull up cameras, unlock doors or activate other devices, all from the same intuitive interface.

Outside the facility walls, data from ALPR systems can be combined with VMS data to help identify unexpected deliveries, investigate suspicious vehicle activity or monitor parking areas to ensure staff and patients are safe on hospital grounds. In addition to an extra level of security, these views can help organizations optimize traffic flow.

Privacy Is Paramount

While data from unified physical security systems can provide valuable insight to help create a safe, efficient environment, healthcare organizations must also pay close attention to data privacy. Regulations establish a minimum standard for how personal data should be stored and managed, but organizations can do more than the minimum.

A modern VMS includes features to help ensure only authorized people access the data, and to control and monitor how they can access it. VMS should also include privacy protection capabilities, which can pixelate people in videos to blur identity and provide audit trails to ensure there is a record of who accessed data and when. For example, with this capability, staff can monitor room usage and availability while maintaining patient privacy.

Improving The Patient Experience

Positive patient experience serves as a key performance indicator for all corners of a hospital, from the emergency room to outpatient clinics. With compensation, reimbursement and even quality outcomes often linked to patient feedback, healthcare organizations must place patient experience at the top of their priority list. Managing the impact of staff shortages, workplace violence and cyberattacks so they don’t affect patients is critical. A unified security system can help healthcare