Before deploying Brivo Onair to manage access control, managing different types of constituents who use the Chancellors Way Medical Arts Centre was a very challenging task.
Dr. Luke Boudreau is the Director of Operations at the Chancellors Way Medical Arts Centre (CWMAC). The CWMAC is a comprehensive medical center that serves the Guelph, Ontario community as well as the University of Guelph. It is a large facility that houses clinics and physician practices. The center prides itself in being an internal community of independent doctors who can collaborate via shared waiting rooms, studio spaces and interconnected hallways. The sense of community is not limited to the medical practices. The CWMAC hosts special patient events and social groups for University of Guelph students and the broader Guelph community. According to Dr. Boudreau, managing all the different types of constituents who use the CWMAC, from students, to seniors, to doctors, to patients was a very challenging task for him and his team before deploying
Brivo Onair to manage access control.
The Challenge
“We had a chaotic lock and key system. If someone lost a key, we had to make the difficult choice—new key or re-key the entire place?” said Dr. Luke Boudreau, Director of Operations of the Chancellors Way Medical Arts Centre (CWMAC). “We have 3000 university students next door, they can be mischievous—you never know when someone might walk in. Kids are kids, with so many walking by and living around us, we needed to make sure the premise is secure. We needed to find a way to automate access to the CWMAC and keep everyone safe.” Dr. Boudreau and his team had a laundry list of people, assets and areas to control and protect in different ways. They needed to:
- Ensure that certain spaces are freely accessible during the day
- Allow certain clinics to operate safely 24 hours a day, seven days a week
- Separate medical practices that may not need to share access
- Keep patients away from doctor administrative offices
- Have separate access schedules for different doors, staff and cleaning crews
- Ensure staff could access their authorized areas at all relevant times
- Secure assets, restricted areas, and specialized equipment
- Limit access to the vaccine fridge to only specific doctors and nurses
- … and the list goes on
Their old brass key system was a nightmare. The CWMAC operations team was not able to be as efficient as they needed to be. Someone had to be on site to open and close the facility. There wasn’t any confirmation that a propped open door had been shut and locked properly. A few times a month Dr. Boudreau or a team member had to drive back to the facility to double check that a door was locked after hours. Copious amounts of time was spent on making sure the facility was safe and secure instead of focusing on what is most important to the CWMAC— community engagement through patient service programs.
“We were delayed in implementing several patient service programs. This was due to several operational issues in the building, including security problems, access problems and being generally uncomfortable bringing in unvetted student groups. We also needed to have the added convenience and security. We needed to know who fobbed in and out of a door at what time. If something was tampered with or taken, we could investigate. So we started looking for access control solutions,” said Dr. Boudreau.
The Choice
Dr. Boudreau reached out to his local access control dealer to find the right security solution for the CWMAC. He selected Brivo Onair to secure the CWMAC because of the security and convenience it offers. When comparing Brivo Onair to other solutions, Dr. Boudreau found that Brivo Onair solved many of the operational issues they were facing and would free up time for them to focus on other projects. By securing the CWMAC with Brivo Onair, the CWMAC operations team is now able to:
- Secure the facility from unauthorized access
- Check if doors are locked, remotely from their tablet, mobile phone or PC
- Lock and unlock the facility and specific doors on a time schedule
- Eliminate the high costs of continuously re-keying the facility
- Review access events during investigations
- Open doors remotely as needed
- Create custom access schedules for special patient events
- Create separate facility access levels for different types of physicians, staff, and the general patient population
The Change
As mentioned above, Dr. Boudreau and the CWMAC operations team were delayed on implementing several patient service programs. Within months of deploying Brivo Onair, they were able to catch-up on projects that had been put on hold for months.
“The time the old system was taking from us—re-keying, making sure doors were locked, making sure doors that were propped open were closed—multiple times a month I had to drive back and check, and others on my team had to do the same. I couldn’t just go to sleep at night, as I was worried that the side door was open. Now, I have the peace of mind that my facility is secure. Last night I got a call at 8:30PM that a doctor wasn’t able to get into the facility. All I had to do is grab my phone and open the door for him. Plus, I changed his access rights so he can enter through a specific door and get in his office permanently. I didn’t have to drive to the CWMAC to make the change. The peace of mind and convenience Brivo Onair provides is well worth it.” said Dr. Boudreau.
Removing antiquated lock and key access control saved the CWMAC operations team a lot of time and money. “So much time and effort used to be dedicated to something so unnecessary and unproductive, I am just glad that it has been completely removed from the equation now,” said Dr. Boudreau. The CWMAC is now able to focus on their community engagement and patient programs. The CWMAC is now secure from unauthorized access and its popularity for community events is growing. They are now able to keep restricted areas secure, while keeping common areas open for Guelph community members and university students to take tai chi classes, take part in chair yoga (for elderly patients), attend educational seminars, and more. Dr. Boudreau is proud to say that the CWMAC is becoming a hub for the community. “We can do all this because of Brivo Onair. After the clinic is closed, we can keep the cafe open in a separate section of the building. We can keep spaces open for special events. Without Brivo we simply couldn’t do this.”