Improving hospital security with Biometrics

A well known Hospital in West Virginia that was founded in the last century is famous for being an outstanding health provider in the state. The healthcare center is also a major referral center for patients who need specialized medical care on in addition to being a regional community teaching hospital with close to a hundred medical specialties and sub-specialties embodied by the medical employees.

About nine years ago, a famous West Virginia hospital joined with Baptist Healthcare System of West Virginia to form our hospital of interest, which later became the largest healthcare delivery system in the state with two hospitals in full operation.

Maintaining a modern standard of operations does not only translate to pursuing the most sophisticated medical technologies out there, but also deals with deploying modern security procedures too. It is more than obvious that the flow of things has changed considerably since the 80's, and so have the needs and requirements of the healthcare security.

Increasing the security level

As of now, the health care center has a widespread, CCTV video surveillance interface. Close to two hundred and twenty surveillance cameras installed throughout the facility, with most of the PTZ cameras setup outside the property. The security Cameras send the visual data to the DVRs, giving security officers the capability to observe events live and/or via the recorded footage. The system connects with the access management application.

The renovated operate console is being operated by only two staff room members seven days a week, twenty four hours a day. The main responsibility of the staff revolves around dispatching, event logging and managing the cameras and the access management interface. On top of that, there are security officers roaming the hospital's vicinity at all day long.

Although the CCTV system of the hospital is functioning flawlessly, the security officials of the university are still interested in enhancing and improving the access control measures in particularly vulnerable locations such as the central pharmacy of the hospital. The security officials of the Healthcare center wanted something other than proximity cards or tokens that could be easily lost, stolen or loaned. At that instant they began to seriously consider investing in biometric technology, and giving this new technology a chance to prove its abilities.

The field of Biometric technology is certainly not new in the industry of security and surveillance. It operation began about thirty years ago, supplying a secure solution for both time-and-attendance as well as access management interfaces. At the present day, hand and fingerprint readers cover just about eighty percent of biometric access management interfaces in use today, so that is where the hospital's security started its exploration.

The administrators of the hospital's security tested and investigated both fingerprint as well as hand geometry technology, but found negative aspects with finger readers. This was because the readers simply produced too many false reads as the user population got larger. At the end of the day, it is equally important to let the right people in just as it is important to keep the wrong people out. In several cases, if any alteration in the finger took place such as a simple cut, or lotions or liquids that may slightly alter the fingerprint pattern the employee would be locked out simply because the finger scanners would not be able to read the fingerprint pattern. Not to mention that there was also no override or auto backup with the finger readers. The security administrators were required to manually admit people to the facility.

At that point in time the hospital started looking at what other organizations were operating with. Unlike the security technology of fingerprinting, hand readers prove to be more user-friendly and accurate as more and more individuals operate it. In Less than one second, a hand reader can instantly snap a 3-D picture of the size and shape of the employee's hand and confirms the user's identity. This was certainly the perfect security solution that the security officials of the hospital were looking for.

A practical alternative
There are close to one hundred and thirty three doors, and gates on the access management interface at the Healthcare center. The technology of Biometrics is exclusively reserved for sensitive and vulnerable regions such as the telephone switch room entrance door. Confidential keyways are presently being utilized for other vital departments.

The initial deployment of hand geometry technology at the hospital consisted of two, Schlage Recognition Systems hand geometry scanners, two proximity readers and keypad units on four perimeter entrance points that lead to the pharmacy and administration offices of the pharmacy department. Due to the fact that this department was a medium-sized department with a little over one hundred workers, this set up gave the hospital a good assessment of the system's capabilities and operation modes. Later on, the biometrics systems were expanded to other areas preceding that success of the initial deployments. The healthcare facility is seriously considering the hand readers for several more applications in the facility.

As of now, the hospital is taking active procedures in order to add seven additional hand readers to guard entrances at an offsite data technology department. The Biometric scanners will be deployed at doors to the IT administration offices and the information department as well.

Incorporation is the secret

Instead of utilizing the biometric systems as standalone devices, security services chose to incorporate hand readers into an incorporated access management interface.

The manufacturers of the Biometric technology offer a variety of ways to integrate biometrics into traditional access control interfaces. Card reader emulation is by far the most common way. This technique is very efficient when integrating into the already established, card-based systems in order to bring extra security to the vicinities that need it the most. The wiring is identical to that of the card scanner.

For the requirement of the healthcare center, the biometric hand scanners basically work with the access control panel in the precise same way that a card reader would operate. The card scanner output port of the biometric is hocked up to the panel's card reader port. The hand reader outputs the ID number of the individual if, and only if, they are verified when a hospital employee begins to operate it.

The layout of the output is congruent with the card technology utilized by the access management interface. As soon as an ID number gets to the panel, it is handled as if it came from a card scanner. The decision of denying or granting access is made by the panel itself. The door control and monitoring is actually handled by the access control panel, not the biometric device.

Implementing biometric technology is no more or less challenging than adding card-based readers to an existing access control system, which is especially the case with older facility such as this West Virginian hospital.

An optimistic forecast

 
The technology of Biometrics offers a higher level of security at the healthcare center. With such security services individuals are not required to carry cards or some other device for in order to access the facility. This fact is particularly helpful to physicians, who will have one less item to keep up with when the system makes the switch to hand readers in those regions.

In spite of all the previously presented benefits, access control is a new concept to the campus and its way of interaction. Away from the technical integration details, there are some very human worries. Cautiously taking into consideration the culture of the hospital has been a key factor in the entire security procedure.

If we look back at the history of the hospital we will realize that it was a county hospital in the past. Ever since the unification and integration of the two health facilities ten years ago, security has seen a remarkable improvement. There are literally hundreds of workers who have worked at the hospital for extended amounts of time. Due to the fact that it was a county hospital, many individuals had the complete freedom to access any part of the facility. The mangers of the hospital's security as well as hospital administrators have made a serious and dedicated effort to bring employees on board though stressing safety and security advantages.

Security services has communicated with employees over and over again on how to utilize the hand geometry scanners, providing them with instructions and advising them to take the extra time required for access control for personal and hospital security and safety measures. It is more than obvious that there wouldn't be a requirement for strict security measures if the world was a perfect place. However since this isn't an immuned world, security is crucial in today's healthcare environment, and in any other environment.

Thanks to the access control scanners, as well as the biometric systems, have increased safety and security awareness has been drastically increased for hospital employees and staff. They have learned to appreciate the wonderful advantages and benefits that these security measures provide them with especially after physically seeing and experiencing these benefits during the daily operations of the devices.

Biometrics security CCTV video surveillance interface PTZ cameras recorded footage access management application live technology hand geometry finger scanners 3-D picture card ID number panel