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Advancing healthcare facility security

Hospitals and healthcare facilities present a unique set of security challenges in that they operate 24/7, have easily accessible areas that are open to the public, and at the same time they need to strictly secure the safety of patients, medical information, operating rooms (theatres), drug dispensaries and other ‘back-of-the-house’ areas.

Suprema provides a secure, flexible and advanced solution, through BioStar 2, to meet the challenging needs of healthcare facilities and has successfully been integrated with hospital management systems.

BioStar 2 is a web-based, open, and integrated security platform that provides comprehensive functionality for access control, and time and attendance management. It encrypts all personal data available and supports both SDKs and web APIs to integrate BioStar 2 with third-party software.

Healthcare facilities usually employ a wide range of staff that often work various shifts and require access to different areas at specific times. BioStar 2 offers flexibility in configuring access zones and job groups, it offers audit trail reporting for restricted areas and ensures strict access control for highly secured areas.

Larger hospitals and residential care homes which operate on more than one floor and perhaps across several sites will benefit from a fully integrated access control system with CCTV, intruder alarm, fire detection and building systems. BioStar 2 has a flexible system architecture and supports both centralised and distributed systems.

Fire rollcall software

Another feature that is particularly useful in these facilities is the fire roll-call software, which, in the event of a fire, automatically generates a report containing crucial information about who is in the building and potentially where they are. This software operates via the access control smartcard or fob that an employee uses to gain access/exit to/from a building. In the event of an emergency, the fire roll-call software alerts occupants to the emergency while simultaneously activating the report at a safe pre-determined remote point.

Controlling visitor access is now more important than what it was before the arrival of COVID-19 and should be considered in an environment with a changing number of patients and visitors. It caters for the printing of photo IDs and allows access to specific areas in the hospital or residential care home, and provides many added benefits.

Suprema’s access control and time and attendance hardware includes a wide range of finger, face and card readers, and allows for easy hybrid implementations. All biometric readers include card/tag readers and users (employee/patient/visitor) can be configured to use biometrics, card/tag, PIN or any combination needed. Therefore, mixed implementations are easily supported, enabling clients to enforce the use of biometrics by employees and then allowing visitors/patients to use a card only. To change these rules, as time goes by, also does not require replacement of hardware. Touchless options include face recognition and mobile credentials, which make use of NFC and BLE on your mobile phone.

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