Lafayette General Updates Security With Surgical Precision

Louisiana-based Lafayette General Medical Center has relied on its integrator to keep its electronic security technology current, including a recent project with 100 cameras and 25 card readers.

A long-term, ongoing relationship between Lafayette General Medical Center (LGMC) in Lafayette, La., and systems integrator Stanley Security of Harahan, La., has served both parties well. Together, they have handled the challenges of ongoing growth and constant moves, additions and changes at the regional healthcare facility and hospital. Stanley and predecessor companies have been working with LGMC since 1993.

“When we installed the first generation of the system, my goals were very different than they are now,” says LGMC Director of Security, Safety and Emergency Preparedness Anjanette Hebert. “Back then I was working with only a hospital building and one parking lot that needed to be controlled. Today, our system has grown from one hospital to five with several ancillary buildings, parking lots at each site, and multiple clinics and physician offices spread over three parishes.”

LGMC is the flagship, nonprofit community-owned and -managed hospital for Lafayette General Health (LGH). The medical campus has grown extensively throughout the years, adding buildings, moving departments and renovating spaces. Most recently, the healthcare provider embarked on an ambitious $52 million project, with Stanley Security providing systems integration and expanding G4S Technology’s Symmetry Professional Security Management System (SMS) – the heart of integrated access control, intrusion detection and video surveillance at the medical center.

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“They started small, continued to add and have grown their Symmetry system to a substantial size,” says Daniel Lackey, Stanley Security’s national account manager of Engineered Solutions. “We work closely with all stakeholders to determine card reader layout and other parameters, and their security director depends on us to communicate with the IT department regarding network and hardware requirements.”

Hebert, who has been at the medical center for many years, believes the success of the electronic security solution starts with and depends on a good working relationship with the hospitals systems integrator.

“My No. 1 demand of my integrator is excellent service,” she says. “Over the years I’ve been able to count on Stanley to provide me with top-notch technicians who became part of the Lafayette General family. I’ve become accustomed to having immediate response to any service need and excellent installation quality.”

At the start of the latest project, LGMC had 128 magnetic stripe card readers and more than 190 cameras. The expansion brings an additional 25 AMAG readers and 110 Samsung IP cameras along with a Salient video management system (VMS) and other low-voltage, electrical and security gear. An upgraded server supports Symmetry Management System v7.0.1 with Symmetry M2150 intelligent controllers.

Integrator Becomes AN Onsite Fixture
To deliver the level of service LGMC and Hebert demand, Stanley provides an ongoing service and maintenance contract to the medical center, and has a technician embedded onsite two days per week.

The most recent renovations and additions to the growing campus included relocating the emergency room and its services, as well moving the security command and control operations center to a prominent location on the first floor of the medical center.

The LGMC campus uses three workstations to manage the SMS: one in human resources and two at the command center, where security staff watch all activity throughout the main hospital, separate buildings and parking lots. Human resources creates badges, but the security department enters access control parameters and permission information into the system.

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