The system was initially deployed in a medical supplies storage area and later expanded to additional departments including the pharmacy, the IT server room, the emergency treatment facilities, and the mail room.
Installation of the hardware was done by in-house maintenance personnel that installed the low voltage CAT-5 cabling, the ISONAS PowerNet reader-controllers and the other door hardware such as locks and sensors. The IT department configured the management software.
Today, the system provides administrators at Moundview Memorial with accountability that was not previously available since the system automatically logs the identity of each person entering a door or accessing a facility along with the time of entry.
“Superior physical security applied to the security realities of today’s healthcare facilities environment is what we were after,” says Franckowiak. “And that’s what we got.”
Medication Security
Every year in American hospitals approximately 400,000 patients become ill or injured as a result of a medication error. In as many as 7,000 of these cases the final outcome is death. With liability costs averaging more than $600,000 per incident, many hospitals are addressing shortcomings in their medication dispensing process.
At Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, an area of concern was its medication storage. Nurses had to make repeated trips to a medication cart located in the hallway to pick up medications. With 20 or more cart doors and an unreliable, antiquated manual lock system, personnel struggled to maintain security.
Under the direction of Sinai Hospital patient care director Bonnie Hartley Faust, MS, MBA, RN, Sinai Hospital selected and installed 400 NetLock Medication Cabinets from Cygnus Inc. pre-integrated with a security access lock system from ISONAS. Each cabinet can be accessed with an employee badge, thus eliminating the need to remember a code or carry a key.
Using management software, reports are used to track who entered each cabinet and when. Any cabinet can be individually assigned access privileges for that location. For example, nurses and pharm
acy staff can be allowed access to a defined list of cabinets and floors limited by specific hours. In addition, pharmacy personnel who stock cabinets can be assigned access at pre-defined time periods.
Securing Other Areas
Door access readers can now also be installed inside a fleet of ambulances that are either run by, or partnered with a hospital. In doing so, the access system’s management software can be updated to grant access to the EMTs that operate ambulances. Wireless technology can be used to automatically update the ambulances when they are parked in front of the hospital.
Parking lots is another application that may be of interest to a medical facility. Installing a centralized access control system and long-range readers at parking facilities reduces parking conflicts and makes it easier for the hospital personnel to enter the lots.
Not all of these areas, though, would necessarily come under the same person’s direct control, says Crenshaw. For that reason, the access control system’s management software has the ability to give administrators control over different portions of the system. For example, in-room cabinets might be monitored by a nursing department, the data center by the IT staff, and building entrances and parking access by the security group.
Joy Tenenberg works in communications for Power PR.
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