Page 36 - Security Today, April 2019

“Instead of paying one sitter to watch one patient, our nurses can monitor a minimum of four patients using the Security Center web client,” Owens said. “So far, this virtual sitter program has amassed a return on investment over $7,000 per week, per unit.”
Lee Health also provides video access to the construction team so that they can uphold infection containment protocols during renovations. This helps them comply with state and federal man- dates that require hospitals to minimize contaminants such as dust or debris to avoid putting patients at risk of infection.
“We are required to have construction areas separated from the rest of the facility,” Owens said. “Our construction team now deploys their own WI-FI cameras as needed and monitors the doors in those areas to validate whether there’s an intrusion or if someone has broken protocol.”
Answering Service Calls from Anywhere
Genetec Sipelia, the intercom module of Security Center, has helped the team maintain exceptional levels of customer service. At the Gulf Coast Medical Center, for example, intercom sta- tions are available within a massive parking garage. If someone requires assistance or needs a golf-cart ride to the hospital en- trance, the team can receive the call directly within Security Cen- ter and begin a conversation to extend help.
“The beauty of Sipelia intercom is that if an operator is busy and cannot respond to a call, the system will automatically for- ward the call over to an operator in a different facility for immedi- ate response,” Owens said.
Improving the Flow of People
with Access Control
The Security Center Synergis access control system is used to secure various doors throughout the sites. There are a few loca- tions where card readers have also been added to elevators and specialty equipment. This helps physicians move faster through buildings by prioritizing their ride in an elevator cab and ensures that only those who are qualified to use certain machines can access them.
Doctors and staff only need one card to access all the different facilities.
“We set up our cardholder groups based on discipline and re- sponsibilities, allowing our staff to easily access our facilities,” Owens said. “Many physicians are on call, so it’s important that they can get in and out of our buildings when required.”
To facilitate parking for physicians, vehicle license plate num- bers are registered as credentials within Security Center. Instead of fumbling for cards, physicians can drive up to parking gates where ALPR cameras read the license plate number, validate the credential, and allow them to enter.
“Having to roll down a window and swipe a card at the park- ing gate caused delays. Vehicle throughput has increased tremen- dously since installing the AutoVu ALPR cameras,” Owens said. “Our first cameras were installed at the Golisano Children’s Hos- pital. The doctors loved it so much that we installed the same solution at Gulf Coast Medical Center parking as well.”
Lee health also uses the ALPR system to flag vehicles that have a history of trespassing, and to gain a better understanding of how patients, staff, and guests are using their parking lots.
The Efficient Way to Manage Evidence
Lee Health facilities are always bustling. That’s why the security team is making the most of the many time-saving features in Se- curity Center. Recently, they began using Genetec Clearance— a digital evidence management system that works with Security Center—to facilitate the gathering and sharing of video evidence. Now, operators can easily create cases, import video, add notes about the event, and share content with authorized individuals via email.
“One thing that we struggled with is what to do with all the video,” Owens said. “And how do we get this video to our rel- evant business partners?
“Clearance allows us to dictate storage for every incident that happens within the organization. So, if it’s a slip-trip-fall event, we’ll set a minimum retention time for that video within Clear- ance. It acts as our central repository for all long-term video ar- chives. We can then easily share the video with our internal teams or external agencies in an efficient and secure manner.”
Keeping Up with Cybersecurity
While the security team is busy safeguarding the enterprise against physical threats, Security Center alerts them to cyber risks.
“Security Center has a long history of being secure from a cyber standpoint and that was part of the draw, especially for our Information Systems team,” Owens said. “One complaint that we had concerning some of our legacy equipment was that it wasn’t up to modern cybersecurity standards. Security Center allows us to close those gaps and fulfill the requirements of our IS partners.”
When it comes to system maintenance, the Health Monitoring feature has been extremely helpful for the security team. Accord- ing to Owens, “With our previous system, we never had a full picture of the issues or opportunities to improve our system. We now have that level of detail. We now have the ability to instantly check what devices might be having issues and run health history reports to address any patterns.”
Standardizing on Security Center
Moving forward, Lee Health is working towards getting every site up and running on the Genetec platform. There are currently more than 700 cameras and 325 doors currently connected and those numbers are expected to double within the next year. After that, the security team plans to centralize the monitoring of all sites from one location. They will also be adding a mobile ALPR system to better enforce parking regulations at one of the hospitals.
“In today’s world, obtaining five different security systems is ineffective; our security needs are beyond that,” said David LaRose, system director of security at Lee Health. “we have many well-integrated solutions and options, which are more ef- ficient for our users and more cost-effective for our organization. By bringing all these technologies together, our team can achieve maximum consistency and efficiency in fulfilling our security ob- jective—to provide a comfortable and safe environment for the best patient outcomes.”
Greg Kemper is the commercial head of Buildings and Industrials Practice at Genetec.
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