SECURITY
A Call for Security
Rob Sands, Technical Director at Videx Security, explains how GSM technology holds huge benefits for care sector security and access control.
Security is high on the agenda within the care sector and imperative to the standard of care provided. The physical safety of residents who live in care homes and other care settings, and the staff who work and visit there, is paramount. As such, access control and door entry is a key focus for care providers.
Care homes and accommodation face a number of physical security risks, including opportunists who try and gain entry to steal personal belongings and expensive healthcare equipment and medicine kept onsite. There’s also a requirement to provide the right level of access control. For example, staff need entry to secure parts of a care home and the risk of vulnerable residents being able to wander into unsupervised or unauthorised areas needs to be minimised.
GSM (Global System for Mobile) uses mobile technology to communicate and operate doors, automatic gates, and car parks, making it a perfect access control solution for a wide range of gated properties and apartments, including many care settings. Because
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of their reliance on mobile technology, GSM systems are also ideal for communications outside of normal business hours, meaning they’re a good entry solution for the 24/7 care environment. When required, calls can be diverted to carers’ mobiles if a resident is unable to take their calls. A carer or family member can also use their mobile phone to gain access either routinely or in an emergency.
GSM-based door entry systems are an excellent choice for care homes and other care environments because of the greater security and usability benefits they provide.
Such systems enable calls to be placed from an entrance point to any mobile or landline telephone. Entry can then be granted using the telephone keypad. The new Videx digital GSM system, for example, offers a number of advanced features and flexibility for care homes. The system has a large graphical display that enables apartment numbers, resident names, staff names and departments to be shown with an easy-to-use scroll facility to help the visitor when searching for the person
they’re visiting. There is also integrated proximity access control for up to 2,000 users and a coded access facility for up to 500 users that can be used as a means of entry, providing an even greater level of security.
Another advantage is that GSM systems require minimum installation and setup time, allowing them to be installed in places that would be too difficult or too expensive to hardwire. For example, GSM would be ideal for a residential care home where the landscaping and decorating had been completed and running cables would mean digging up driveways or damaging interior décor. They’re also ideal for care settings when existing cables are damaged and can no longer be used or when the distance between the entrance points and the telephone points is too great for a conventional system.
Systems require only the mounting of the entrance panel, the connection to a power supply, antenna and gate or door releasing device. The new Videx digital GSM system also comes with a customisable LCD display, back-lit keypad for poor lighting conditions, and
www.tomorrowscare.co.uk
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