"In other cases, it is driven by a desire to reduce the operating costs — reducing the total solution footprint by integrating solutions and eliminating redundant components that are performing the same task in an isolated fashion," Botti added. "In some other cases, it is a function of providing better regulatory compliance auditing — having a single source of the truth, which simplifies attestation, birth righting and sun setting of identity."
"Health care facilities are recognizing that they have a responsibility to protect patients, staff and property," Cullen said. "A good integrated security schema can have great impact on the cost of insurance for a hospital. Protecting the physical well-being of staff and patients has always been important, but as more patient information becomes electronic and interoperable, it is critical that this information is only available to those with appropriate permissions. Patient information falling into the wrong hands carries expensive penalties and fines, and can negatively impact the marketability of that facility."
Utilizing Smart Cards
Smart cards are useful for many functions: access control, payroll and attendance systems, among other tasks. Contactless cards in particular help limit and control infections in health care settings. Sensitive areas like the intensive care unit or pharmacy require dual-factor authentication, combining biometric verification with the assigned smart card.
Biometrics
Biometric deployments in health care facilities have traditionally been problematic, as conventional systems fail to operate reliably in harsh environments and situations, Cullen said. "Frequent hand washing, heavy use of
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| Eric Assouline, Export Sales Manager, CDVI Group |
chemicals and cleaners, the wearing of latex gloves and a wide range of demographic issues make biometric enrollment and authentication quite difficult and challenging."
Newer biometric techniques enable fingerprint scanning even when hands are gloved. "Multispectral fingerprint scanning, which has the unique ability to scan beneath the surface layer of skin, handles the environmental factors that can affect fingerprints," Cullen said.
As well, with a decrease in pricing and an increase in ease of use and maintenance, biometrics is becoming more and more adopted in access control systems at health care institutions, said Mike Grimes, President of Integrated Biometrics. "Some of the most dramatic changes are the increased security that comes with no longer having a PIN code, which can be shared, and cards, which can be lost, shared or stolen."
"Contactless smart cards minimize overhead when dealing with biometric template management and distribution," said Dan DeBlasio, Director of Business Development, Identity and Access Management, HID Global (an Assa Abloy company). "Rather than storing biometrics on a server and distributing them over a wired network, a contactless smart card-based system allows biometric templates to be carried by the card holder, offering a stronger level of authentication and security commonly referred to as ‘match on card.'"
Visitors
The convergence of physical and logical access control systems is largely restricted to staff and patients. However, effective monitoring of visitor access, especially during after-hours, ensures overall secure access in health care facilities. A common way to guard restricted areas is to program access points, permitting only authorized personnel with identification cards to gain entry or exit. “Some health care institutions may also want to integrate intercoms into access-controlled doors so that visitors can communicate with staff during after-hours,” said Philip Verner, Sales and Marketing Manager, CEM Systems (a Tyco International company).