Page 13 - Campus Security & Life Safety, May/June 2020

“With more than 1,800 network cameras, the
hospital uses video for surveillance, security
and situational awareness throughout the
interior and exterior of the facilities.” By Barbara Rizzatti
“Nemours has used the Milestone platform for several years. Once the initial federated topology was implemented, we were able to migrate all of our IP and existing legacy analog cameras into our system. One key feature that drove that decision was the ability to update or change camera settings on the backend with- out our end users ever experiencing any down- time or interruption of service,” Summanen said. “The open platform gives us the ability to quickly and securely integrate new capabilities and services. Having that flexibility truly gives us the opportunity to provide innovative solu- tions to our associates and is proving to be an invaluable resource for Nemours.”
At Nemours, the video system sits on a federated topology with a parent server and
three child servers (two in Florida, one in Delaware). At each hospital, all recorders run on virtual servers using SAN or block stor- age, providing a highly reliable architecture. Meanwhile, the remote clinics use localized Lenovo recording servers in order to miti- gate pushing video over the WAN. Sum- manen said that they’ve standardize on Lenovo hardware for their smaller locations and HP servers within their data centers.
"If we experience a significant issue with a remote recorder, we’re able to redeploy a new recorder with our standard Windows image. This lets us take advantage of the PC hard- ware we currently stock on our shelves and allows us quickly restore functionality with minimal impact to operations,” Summanen said. “We’re all about the process, and Mile- stone’s open platform VMS is very flexible with off-the-shelf hardware.”
Beyond the Traditional
for Better Patient Care
Summanen explained that Nemours uses their video surveillance system in many non-tradi- tional ways, including a range of integrations that help the hospital improve facility efficien- cy, lower operational costs, and deliver a safe, pleasant and healthful patient experience.
With child safety foremost in mind, Nemours has deployed a camera in every patient room. This allows for a level of monitor- ing that a patient wouldn’t normally have in place, Summanen said. Not only are there nurs- es and clinical staff in the room and at the nurs- ing station, but the TLC is able to announce themselves via audio and then monitor a room. This gives them the ability to assist remotely and call other rapid response teams if needed.
“We have an AXIS P33 Series fixed net- work camera in each room, to provide a third level of patient monitoring and situational awareness within the patient envelope,” Sum- manen said. “None of the camera outputs are recorded, but when an alarm trigger is acti- vated, it allows highly trained paramedics to monitor every child at Nemours 24/7. This capability has greatly extended our patient coverage and has allowed us to provide more effective and cost-efficient care.”
Summanen added that each patient room camera is equipped with a privacy LED light indicator. The hospital uses a range of LED
notification solutions, some triggered by the Milestone VMS and some by the AXIS camera itself. When anyone is accessing the video, the LED will flash, letting those in the room know that the camera is in use. Only authorized per- sonnel are allowed access to the video.
Along with the cameras, Nemours uses a mix of video/data integrations and analytic tools to extend the effectiveness of human operators by quickly flagging potential issues. The open platform VMS enables other systems to share video and data.
“Several clinical groups within Nemours use our Milestone system regularly, including Cardiology and in our ORs. We also share real-time ultrasound video across the system for physician ‘wet reads’ for fetal care and other diagnostics,” said Summanen. “Our Behavioral Health and Autism clinics use video in patient care and in tracking patient development over the course of several visits.”
As a data foundation for the system, the hos- pital keeps tabs on patients through video inte- grated with Epic Monitor. Epic is the hospital’s Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system. An EMR is a digital version of the patient’s medical chart. By tying the information to the Logistics Center, operators can keep a vigilant watch on patients with their medical information data also presented on screen. This detail allows operators to stay informed and keep a close eye on the most critical patients.
Remote Wet Reads for Fetal Care
The Perinatal department uses the Milestone platform to share video of ultrasound scans with others located throughout the region for real-time ’wet reads’ of the imaging. A wet read is a reference to reading an x-ray immedi- ately following the processing of the film (i.e., while it is still wet from hand processing).
“When a technician is performing an ultrasound scan, they can share the scan video with others remotely if needed,” Sum- manen said. “This can be done live, giving the provider immediate feedback. A diag- nostic-level reading is still forthcoming, but the immediate sharing allows us to provide a more thorough service, and perhaps save the patient from additional ultrasound scans.”
Today, for example, a technician may notice an abnormality in a scan and want to share the live video with a perinatal specialist in real-
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