SECURITY AND ACCESS CONTROL
Aiming for a securer and ‘smarter’ hospital
Keith Carey, Marketing manager at access control manufacturer, SALTO Systems, which counts healthcare among its key vertical markets, looks at some of the ways in which hospitals can update and consolidate security and access control across their estate.
Locker locks can control access to cupboards and lockers.
The challenges involved in securing a hospital are unlike those in almost any other building. Most hospitals have relatively easy access, because they want to provide a welcoming environment, and while this dictates that it is often necessary to allow for high levels of public access to the hospital and other health service amenities – including the routes linking different departments – entry to many back-of-house areas and most other facilities needs to be restricted, for the protection of both patients and property. Personal safety and crime prevention are obviously key issues for any hospital, but Estates and Facilities in the health service are also required to address the legal implications of effective security as well. Legislation such as the Health and Safety at Work Act, the Occupiers Liability Act, and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, impose a wide-ranging duty of care upon such personnel, and data protection laws also require for strengthened safeguarding of personal information, a factor with clear relevance to the health service. Precisely how this duty is discharged depends on many factors, including the level of security required in specific areas, and the number of people likely to need access to those areas in the course of their work.
Controlling access to certain areas critical
As past events in hospitals have shown, with alleged tampering of saline ampoules,
BioCote antimicrobial technology can be applied to handles.
saline bags, and medical products, controlling access to certain areas is critical, as even the most trustworthy staff can become suspect when there is a security incident. One particular event resulted in staff having to work in pairs to check and administer drugs only for their ward, and a single key-holder for that same ward also had to be asked for access to the locked drugs cabinets. Saline solution was then also locked away at the hospital.
Shutting the door after the horse has bolted is never going to be a satisfactory security solution, so the trick is to find a balance between preserving freedom of movement, while protecting people and goods. To prevent unauthorised access, the main security issue in almost all hospitals is key control. Many hospitals and other health service buildings still use large numbers of mechanical locks with keys that are awkward to control, and time-consuming and expensive to replace if key security is breached, and they have no ‘audit trail’ facility to show management who accessed a door and when. In addition, users of keyed locks can also leave themselves open to a range of potential problems – and of these there is one particularly thorny issue – mechanical keys are really easy to copy, with no questions asked. An alternative to keyed locks – especially when a key has been lost – is to replace the lock with a cheap keypad or PIN code lock. These are also used in
substantial numbers in hospitals alongside keyed locks, and they too can be extremely unsecure. In many cases it is far from unknown for the 4 or 6 digit code to be written down and kept close by the door, making nonsense of the security. Clearly, with so much at stake, something more robust is needed, so what is the solution? Controlling access via a traditional hard-wired system is only a practical answer for a very small number of doors, as the complexity of installation and sheer volume of wiring usually make it a prohibitively expensive option. As an alternative, therefore, many hospitals will want a solution that can cope with as many doors as possible, i.e. for operating theatres, intensive care wards, maternity suites, treatment rooms, pharmacies, drug and medicine stores, medical record offices etc, but they will want it at an affordable price, as their number one priority – security issues aside – is, and will always be, investing in patient care.
Choosing a system
Most hospitals require employees such as doctors, nurses, porters, cleaners, and administration staff etc, to wear a photo ID. In some cases these badges can be very basic, but in many hospitals they have discovered that it makes sense to link hospital ID badges to access control systems. Contactless smart cards can then enhance the overall security level of a facility, by limiting access to restricted areas, and permitting only authorised
September 2021 Health Estate Journal 61
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