New System Has Teeth

Aug 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By KATE HENRY

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is the state's principal university of the health sciences. A teaching, research and medical practice institute with five campuses in five cities, the university's facilities include everything from academic buildings and medical research labs and centers, to out-clinic facilities and three hospitals.

Sergeant Frank DeMarzo is communications supervisor in charge of communications for the Public Safety and Police Departments on the main Newark campus. A further aspect of his responsibility is serving as system administrator for the new enterprise access control system that is networked to serve all five campuses.

Because UMDNJ is a graduate school, the student population among the five campuses is only in the neighborhood of 5,000, but given that it is also a teaching and research institute, the employee population in Newark alone, for instance, is about 8,000. Factor in students, employees, clinics and their patient-load, a 600-bed hospital and patient visitors and program patrons — and the daytime population whose access DeMarzo ultimately ‘controls’ can reach 18,000 on any given day.

Open but Closed

“The principal challenge we face is essentially having to keep the place open but closed,” DeMarzo says. “Every aspect of our security program is designed to help ensure UMDNJ is safe and secure for the various patients, employees, students and visitors who depend on it every day.”

He adds that being in a major city such as Newark presents additional challenges to the ‘open but closed’ balance. “UMDNJ runs a lot of clinics for people who don't have insurance, for instance, and in an urban center, that tends toward a sizable patient population in and of itself. A different sort of consideration is we are a Level 1 Trauma Center with a dedicated helicopter and landing pad,” he notes.

The university's research orientation presents still further considerations, such as the need to secure valuable physical assets.

“Given the research activity in the dental labs, for instance,” DeMarzo explains, “the dental students must work with gold and silver, so we have dedicated rooms housing gold and silver stores that require additional protection. We also have a new public health and tuberculosis center, which we need to secure quite carefully as tuberculosis is, of course, airborne.”

DeMarzo says the ultimate goal is for the facilities to openly and safely accommodate all authorized users — and to have the security technology in place to authenticate the identity and movements of those users on an as-needed basis.

The first steps in that authentication process have been the implementation of an enterprise access control system and of a digital CCTV surveillance system — and that may only be the beginning.

Off to a Running Start

Ten years ago, the university's physical security program consisted mainly of about 40 card readers on the Newark campus only. Today, a Picture Perfect access control system from GE Interlogix/Casi supports more than 400 card readers and enrolls about 18,000 badge holders across the five campuses. Managed from the university's main computer server in Newark, signals from the system feed into the main Newark campus using a combination of network, dial-up and direct phone line connections, making the system less vulnerable to downtime, DeMarzo notes.

DeMarzo is the chief access system administrator, but he gives credit to colleagues who help manage system logistics from remote locations such as Piscataway and New Brunswick, to an on-staff computer systems analyst, to a locksmith unit, including electronics technicians who have been trained to handle and troubleshoot the new access installations. “We were paying an outside vendor,” DeMarzo explains, “but the cost got a little high for the constant maintenance we require, so we sent three people to GE Interlogix training and we are now autonomous in that regard, which has been an enormous benefit.”

The system itself is dual-credential-based — requiring both a mag-stripe swipe and PIN entry at various exterior and interior access points throughout the campuses. Higher security areas include both the aforementioned precious metals storage areas and Public Health Center and also narcotics and EMS paramedic storage areas.

DeMarzo says the university is looking into upgrading its card technology still further to the potential benefit of a number of departments and users university-wide. It would standardize on a dual-technology mag-stripe and proximity card that would enable data storage and debit and credit applications such as library checkout information and cafeteria accounts for students and staff, he explains. The cards could also facilitate applications in parking facilities, further automating ingress and egress, and they could incorporate a photo ID component as well. “Another potential future use is providing patients with a photo ID card that could be presented to a reader to instantly access medical records,” DeMarzo adds. “The hospital serves some 250,000 patients a year, and the card technology would effectively put file management online.”

UMDNJ's choice of access system had a great deal to do with ease of migration to it. Says DeMarzo: “We had a clear system of naming our facility doors already in place. The Picture Perfect system allowed us to call every door, alarm and window what we currently called it and then to manage all our own times. Other systems required that doors be re-named with numbers 1-500, for instance, which would have meant re-labeling all the doors and re-training staff and members of the university population.”

DeMarzo credits systems integrator Access Control Technologies of Clifton, N.J., for working with UMDNJ on the access system for a number of years and also for facilitating the university's most recent upgrade — a CCTV overhaul that included a switch to digital surveillance and recording, using GE Interlogix/Kalatel Triplex DMVRes. A mix of 75 digital day and night pan/tilt/zoom cameras feed into the system from throughout the five campuses, watching interior and exterior applications and being monitored locally or remotely from desktop PCs via the network.

The surveillance system has 900 gB hard drives, so the university can store images for almost seven months, DeMarzo says, and it integrates with the access system, presenting the capability to call up instant live video and recording of alarm conditions and system activity. “We're gearing up to install an additional 75 cameras because what we have has worked so well,” DeMarzo says.

DeMarzo says that though the system is large, its flexibility and seamless capabilities have made it relatively easy to manage, and he is looking into taking integration to the next level with the addition of a facility management system. That system would tie in control of fire alarm and HVAC monitoring with security — a logical step to furthering the university's chief security aim.

FOR THE RECORD

About The Companies

For information, circle the Reader Service number (listed below) or visit securitysolutions.com

Access Control Technologies	40
GE Interlogix/Casi	41
GE Interlogix/Kalatel	42

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