The Right Technology

Feb 1, 2008 12:00 PM

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) is in the process of swapping out its access control system, which includes 800 card readers, 1,500 alarm points, 200 time-of-day schedules and approximately 15,000 magnetic stripe badges. CCHMC is switching from the magnetic stripe technology to proximity cards and contactless smart card readers due to new construction. As the hospital embarked on the construction of a 12-story research center, a 2,000-site parking garage, a six-story office building, a three-story building and a garage with 1,500 new parking spaces, staff members had to decide if they were going to keep the same access control system or move to something new.

“We recognized that access control is the cornerstone of a good security system,” says Ron Morris, CCHMC senior director of protective services. “Managing the process of who is authorized to come and go is key to protecting our people, property, information and reputation.”

“Moving toward a contactless smart card actually will allow us a cost-savings in the long haul,” says Geoffrey Jung, security systems technician. “We have numerous card readers at elevators and in parking lots. These readers have about 1,000 to 1,500 swipes in a typical day. And, as a result, they wear out, need repair or replacement. Contactless readers don't experience the same type of maintenance issues as the mag-stripe readers. And frankly, they are just less expensive. Also our clean rooms here at the hospital, which are used for research, have to remain sanitary. Not touching the card reader reduces cross-contamination,” Jung says.

The new systems will also allow CCHMC to institute lock-down procedures. Hospitals are faced with an array of potentially violent situations, including everything from hostile parents in the throes of separation or divorce, to couples who are fighting over child custody issues. This increases the possibility for angry partners to approach patients or employees. “The emergency room could potentially have an active shooter situation, as CCHMC is faced with patients who enter the facility with gunshot wounds resulting from a gang situation,” Morris says. “We simply don't know if others will come to retaliate or finish the job they started. We need to be able to respond to these crisis situations immediately by locking down specific areas or the whole facility if necessary in order to protect patients and staff.”

This new contactless system is also more configurable and flexible. The panels have network connectivity and will tie into the PeopleSoft operating software so that one middleware system will manage all of the data. The software systems that the manufacturer provides will be the interface for this tie-in.

Currently, the intent is not to commingle data with the organization's data. This network connectivity will allow for better administration of the system. CCHMC will work directly with human resources (HR) and will continue to administer badges as they always have. But as HR brings new employees on, they can automatically provide the hospital with the right data to configure the employee's access privileges based on their role within the hospital. This will ensure that they have proper access to restricted areas, such as the pharmacy, research labs or the doctor's parking lot. Privileges can be changed automatically as people are promoted or as their roles at the hospital change.

CCHMC was established 1883 and is a full service, not-for-profit pediatric medical center with 475 licensed beds. The hospital is nationally recognized as a leader in pediatric health care, with a reputation for excellence in patient care, research and medical education.

CCHMC is a research and teaching facility, so the hospital has visiting professors, scholars, foreign nationals and scientists, fellows, rotating interns, medical students and nursing students. There are also volunteers, food service providers and non-paid professionals.

With approximately 10,000 employees who are on the payroll and approximately 6,000 who are non-CCHMC personnel, the hospital needed to develop criteria to determine when non-CCHMC personnel would require a photo identification badge. If they would be at the hospital after hours, need access to secure or locked areas, be on the property for multiple days, lease space or work for a company that leases spaces, or provide direct or indirect patient care, they are required to go through the non-CCHMC badging process. This entails a photo ID, a background check and a health screening.

Since CCHMC is a pediatric facility, workers may not have record of crimes against children, violent crimes or drug-related crimes. Additionally, the hospital needs to know if non-CCHMCC personnel have certain medical conditions. It is extremely important for individuals with certain diagnoses be properly counseled by the employee health department in order to prevent outbreaks of measles, mumps, varicella, pertussis, hepatitis A, B, C and/or HIV and TB.

“When it came to selecting the right technology partner to help us design and implement our solution, we turned to our long-term partner, Securitas Systems, Stockholm, Sweden, for support,” Morris says. “We really look at the relationships we build with our vendors as partnerships — not just buyer and supplier. It's important that our vendors understand our goals, our risks and are active participants in helping us resolve our business concerns and issues. Our partners go through rigorous exercises to prove their capabilities and to earn our business. We then formally measure them on what they do for us, project by project, with standardized tools that we have developed at the hospital to measure the quality of service that we receive.”

The future and the benefits

“When it's completed, our new system will have 35 percent more card readers, which means more alarm points and additional perimeter controls,” Morris says. “It's a big undertaking and it is expensive to switch over everyone's cards and our entire system. But we are confident of the benefits and added security that it will bring us, ensuring that we have the right technology in place.”

There are about 250 cameras installed at key entrances and exit points that support the access control system all saving data to DVRs which allows CCHMC to verify incidents, so the hospital can see what happened and how. The new middleware or access system has a graphical interface that will allow the hospital to synchronize the access control and camera systems to the network in the future. This will allow for real-time video solutions, adding more analytic capabilities and expanding the surveillance system to add more security to the solution.

CCHMC is currently looking at adding car-counting video analytics in the parking garages. This will allow them to accurately identify whether the garage is full, thus saving employees and guests from riding around looking for a parking space.

“We are lobbying for additional funds to upgrade our command center, adding redundancy,” Morris states. “The monitoring center is the head-end of the system, where the video, access and alarm data are collected and managed.”

According to Morris, CCHMC will be strengthening its training program for staff. Technology is only as good as the people who operate and maintain it. Quality staff performance is dependent upon education, training and drilling with scenario exercises.

Video Surveillance Equipment

	CURRENTLY HAVE	HOW MANY ARE DEPLOYED IN YOUR HOSPITAL (MEAN)	AVG.# DEPLOYED BY BEDSIZE
			<201	201-400	401+
DIGITAL VIDEO RECORDERS (DVRS)	77%	10.3%	4.3%	5.9%	21.2%
ANALOG CAMERAS	37%	83.5%	35.3%	71.2%	158.3%
NETWORK/IP CAMERAS	27%	68%	28.6%	39.6%	128.8%
NETWORK/IP CAMERAS	27%	68%	28.6%	39.6%	128.8%
IP VIDEO SOFTWARE (VIDEO MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE)	25%	3.8%	3.8%	1.9%	5.7%
MATRIX SWITCHERS	22%	4.3%	1.9%	4.1%	5.6%
VCRS	17%	6.2%	3.2%	3.9%	14.4%
HYBRID DVRS	14%	3.7%	3.6%	2.7%	5.5%
VIDEO SERVERS/”VIRTUAL MATRIX” SERVERS	7%	5.4%	14.5%	7.3%	2%
NETWORK VIDEO RECORDERS (NVRS)	5%	10.5%	21%	1.5%	4%
SOURCE: GE Security

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