How Systems Integration Can Make Hospitals and Universities Safer
If your campus has multiple types of security and safety technologies deployed, systems integration is the key to making them more effective.
A trusted security integrator can help your organization address its interoperability issues, basing solutions on the specific needs of your college or hospital.
Go to any college campus or hospital, and you’ll find multiple security and building systems running, be they video surveillance, access control, emergency communications, intrusion alarms, fire alarms, lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and more. Ensuring that these solutions interoperate will make your organization’s response to safety and security issues faster and more effective. Systems integration can also improve a facility’s day-to-day operations.
Examples of the potential benefits of interoperability are many. For instance, if a university or hospital’s security cameras are integrated with its call boxes, when someone calls for help from a blue light phone, the real-time view from the camera at that location can immediately pop-up on the dispatcher’s video monitor in the security operations center. Live video from the call box provides the dispatcher with more details about the caller and the caller’s situation.
Systems integration can also help with daily operations. For example, if an organization integrates its access control, intrusion detection, lighting and HVAC systems, it can conserve energy and reduce operating costs by automatically identifying when certain rooms are not in use and turn off the lights and HVAC at those locations.
Although the benefits of systems integration are numerous, Campus Safety magazine has found that the healthcare and education sectors are struggling to develop ways that their systems can “talk” to each other and interoperate.
Campus Safety magazine’s most recent video surveillance survey found that 57 percent of healthcare and education security professionals believe their challenges with the integration of video surveillance with other public safety systems — such access control, intrusion and fire alarms — are somewhat to extremely challenging. Two in five respondents indicate that they have moderate to major issues with their older cameras not integrating with their newer ones. According to Campus Safety’s 2017 Access Control Survey, about a third of respondents say they are somewhat to extremely challenged with their old access control solutions not working with their newer access systems.
How to address these challenges can be complicated and requires a lot of planning, working with your organization’s IT department and partnering with a highly qualified integrator.
An organization might choose to slowly transition its legacy equipment to a newer solution that is interoperable with other brands and other types of systems. A hospital or university might also choose to adopt a video management system (VMS) or physical security information management (PSIM) to manage all of its systems from its security operations center. Or, the campus could decide to do away with its traditional security operations center and opt for a virtual one that leverages the cloud.
Determining how your organization addresses its interoperability issues should be based on the specific needs of your college or hospital.
A trusted security integrator can help with this process. STANLEY Security partners with both colleges and healthcare facilities to develop customized security programs for their campuses. By developing functional standards across the campus, an organization can put together a cohesive, integrated security program that they can work towards in the upcoming years.
There are many electronic security solutions available for all areas of a campus, and STANLEY Security frequently provides the following systems to its healthcare and higher education partners:
- Access Control Systems
- Video Surveillance Cameras and Video Monitoring
- Intrusion Alarm Systems
- Standards Development and Strategic Planning
- Software Support, Consultation and Integration
- Personal Safety and Security Response Mobile Apps
- Patient Safety Solutions
- Mass Notification and Emergency Communication
- Lock Down Solutions
- Custom System Integration
- Fire Alarm Systems and Regular Tests and Inspections
- 24 Hour UL and ULC Monitoring Services
- System Consultation, Design and Installation
- Preventive Maintenance and Service Plans
For more information on the solutions you can implement on your campus, or for educational resources on improving your security program, visit STANLEY Security at http://stanleycss.com.
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