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The Need for Physical Security Surveillance in Hospitals and Clinics

Posted by Blue Technologies Ohio on May 23, 2022 9:00:00 AM

Healthcare workers are often underserved and undervalued. And now they are even at higher risk for workplace violence than the average worker across other industries. Studies show that if you are a healthcare worker, you are up to five times more likely to be a victim of assault than people in any other job. Some recent surveys even showed that almost 70% of nurses in emergency rooms have been kicked or hit while doing their jobs. 

No matter how you look at it, this trend is not a good thing. For one thing, it contributes to healthcare worker burnout, job attrition, and high turnover rates. It also puts hospitals at risk for litigation and can contribute to patient worries over their own safety while at a healthcare organization, undermining patient trust and loyalty and possibly contributing to a perceived lowered standard of patient care.

As a result, many hospitals and clinics are turning to cloud-based video surveillance systems to bolster staff — and patient — safety and security. 

The Advantages of Physical Security Surveillance for Healthcare Organizations

Many hospitals and healthcare organizations are increasing their use of physical security surveillance equipment to eliminate incidents of violence, theft, and unauthorized access. These technologies can ensure that security is alerted at the first indication of a problem through an early-warning system, so they can act before things spiral out of control. In the past, old-school technology required that someone looking for video footage of an incident would have to travel to the specific location of the occurrence, access video recordings from a local hard drive, and transfer it to a USB or other device before viewing. Cloud-based surveillance means that all footage is stored on encrypted drives that can be retrieved online through a main dashboard by authorized personnel. Other advantages include:

Better Control 

In the past, many security systems were handled independently from access control systems, isolating both systems and making it impossible for them to communicate due to siloing. Not only did this contribute to operational inefficiencies, but it also made it difficult for security personnel to react to issues on both systems concurrently. Using a surveillance system that integrates access control allows security personnel to be alerted to any unauthorized incursions as well as monitor numerous feeds from many locations in real-time. 

Greater Reliability 

Legacy surveillance systems can be difficult to manage in the event of power outages since redundancy can be a problem. With cloud-based surveillance, there are multiple data centers working to keep your data secure — and accessible. Multi-cloud environments can enhance redundancy and security even more, by eliminating reliance on a single point of service. 

Scalable and Easy to Maintain 

The coronavirus pandemic brought the need for scalable operations in healthcare and other industries to the fore. As hospitals struggled to take on ever-broadening patient loads and facilities expanded to include temporary patient housing and clinic spaces, the need for easily scalable security solutions expanded. Cloud-based systems allow for extra cameras, lighting, access controls, and more to be added — or removed — simply and easily as operations expand or contract. Maintenance and upgrades are simpler with a cloud-based system, and those organizations who choose to rely on expert knowledge from a third-party team also experience the benefit of reduced workload on their own in-house IT team. 

Trust Blue Technologies for Leading Edge Physical Security 

At Blue Technologies, we are a full-service IT provider. That means we can partner with your healthcare organization to help you get leading-edge services of all kinds — from physical surveillance to communications and more. Having the ability to create custom solutions that merge two or more technologies is key to a reliable, scalable, cost-effective solution that brings not only utility, but data security and protection as well. Our team of IT professionals are experts at analyzing your current infrastructure against your business needs and goals and creating actionable, intelligent strategies to tackle the issues confronting your organization — from data and physical security to maintenance and troubleshooting.

Help your staff and patients stay safer and more secure. Contact a Blue Technologies consultant to discuss how a cloud-based surveillance system may benefit your healthcare organization.

Topics: healthcare, Physical security surveillance, Surveillance systems, Cloud-based surveillance, Security systems

About Blue Technologies

Blue Technologies is an award-winning office technology solutions provider. Since 1995, we have offered office hardware, managed print services, document management, and IT solutions to businesses throughout the state of Ohio, becoming the region’s most reputable office technology provider in the process.

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