Palmetto Health Richland medical facility in Columbia, South Carolina is known for high quality medical care and an expert clinical staff. The facility's intelligent design and practices include a sophisticated access control system using the Morse Watchmans key control and management solution.
The many buildings located on the campus are each equipped with a card-based access control system to ...
Palmetto Health Richland medical facility in Columbia, South Carolina is known for high quality medical care and an expert clinical staff. The facility's intelligent design and practices include a sophisticated access control system using the Morse Watchmans key control and management solution.
The many buildings located on the campus are each equipped with a card-based access control system to control entry and exit activity; employees enter buildings and/or areas using their pre-authorized access cards. Security management has specially programmed master access control card keys that allow entry to all areas secured by the card access system. To safely secure these master access control keys when not in use and to automate the transaction management, the hospital uses the Morse Watchmans system.
The keys are held in a Morse Watchmans cabinet that can only be opened by individuals who have been pre-programmed into the system. To open the cabinet and access a key, the individual enters their authorized code and then presents their card access identification badge to the built-in proximity reader. If the criteria entered matches the information stored in the system database, the key cabinet will unlock and the necessary key can be removed or returned. The computerized system automatically records the access activity of each transaction, including user, date and time of checkout/return.
“The previous manual system was simply too ineffective and labor intensive. Both security and engineering kept and managed keys but neither had full ownership of the entire process,” said Henry Simons, Director of Security and Volunteer Services for Palmetto Health. “The Morse Watchmans system resolved the problem. Each department installed a Morse Watchmans cabinet with automated tracking that allows us to control the keys assigned to our individual departments. We can now hold individuals accountable for a key and thereby lessen the risk of our master system being compromised.”
The hospital custom designed the system to include the two-step entry process as well as allow integration of the Morse Watchmans system with its card access system. Any time the Morse Watchmans cabinet is accessed, the activity pops up on the access control system screen and anything out of the ordinary is immediately identified.