Brivo Systems, a provider of Software as a Service (SaaS) applications for security management, announced that The Memorial Hospital (TMH) at Craig, has installed a Brivo access control solution to improve security in their recently completed, expanded facility. Security Install Solutions served as the project integrator and Cliff West of Mazzetti Nash Lipsey Burch was the technology and security consultant.
As TMH staff planned security for their new hospital facility, they knew they wanted to issue cards in order to control access to the OR and OB areas; provide intercoms for entry and exit points; limit access to sterile environments; and gain better control of access after regular business hours. The Brivo system jumped out to both West and the hospital’s IT department because they immediately understood the system's potential and because Brivo offered several different hardware and software options from which to choose to best meet the hospital’s challenging security and IT needs.
The Brivo solution currently manages access at 42 external and internal doors located throughout the hospital to achieve the stated security goals. "We simply couldn’t achieve the level of security we wanted in the new hospital with locks and keys," said Samantha Johnston, Chief of Organizational Excellence. "Our staff already wear ID badges, so issuing access cards was an easy step. We installed Brivo at access points in our high-priority areas, anywhere patients are being treated."
In addition to patient treatment areas, access is managed and monitored in other high security areas such as the OB wing and also in the hospital's business and administration offices. "Our annual plan is to add more doors onto the Brivo system each year," Johnston said.
The hospital projects the Brivo system will eventually manage more than 70 doors. Johnston is the main system administrator, but she has trained two more staff in HR who are now doing most of the day-to-day work.
Johnston recalled a story from the transition meetings to plan the move into the new hospital building. "One of the consultants kept telling me what a nightmare it usually is to convert to a new access control system with proximity cards, it was probably the easiest part of the move," she said. "The Brivo system is so easy to use. I’ve never read the manual and it’s a piece of cake."
"The system has worked exactly as it was supposed to work," she continued. "We did all the work assigning privileges to staff and the different doors, literally, in a couple of hours. And now, whatever it is we need to do, it takes us two seconds."
The Brivo system manages access for about 300 users organized into groups including all staff, the coroner, vendors, and guests who visit the hospital on a regular basis.
Johnston runs regular reports to investigate incidents of unauthorized entry, but also to monitor workflow patterns, both to see where the access system needs adjusting, and to provide employees with feedback on how they go about their jobs.
The Facilities Department also uses reports to look at who is entering the building and where staff may be trying to gain entry out of shift. The Brivo system even came in handy during a recent community-wide disaster drill. Johnston and her staff used access control alerts to cue up video and identify people who were not where they were supposed to be during the exercise.
The hospital chose smart cards over standard proximity cards, so staff cards provide both access and cashless vending in the cafeteria. And because of the way the Brivo technology accepts multiple card formats, the hospital can easily provide access to first responders.
In addition to all the improved benefits for the main hospital staff and administrators, the Brivo system is also used to control access at several outlying clinics for those staff who travel between the main hospital and one or more of the clinics, all using the same cards and all managed by the one Brivo interface, regardless of location. Such functionality saved TMH significant installation costs and leveraged existing infrastructure.