Put a Lock on Security - Company Operations

Health Management Technology, Jan, 2001 by David Rizzo

Theft goes down, public safety goes up with access control system.

While doctors, nurses and support staff of medical institutions focus on the lofty purpose of helping injured or infirmed individuals, each institution's management must concentrate on an equally important goal: ensuring safety and security. The protection of patients, visitors and employees is certainly of highest priority at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston.

Established in 1891, UTMB never wavers from its mission of providing scholarly teaching, innovative scientific investigation and state-of-the-art patient care. Yet, with more than 6.68 million square feet of campus to monitor with a staff of only 40 commissioned police officers and an additional 40 non-commissioned guards, the UTMB Police Department (UTMB-PD) had its hands full keeping an eye on the expansive medical center. Things kept disappearing out of the buildings.

"With limited manpower to cover all areas, it became increasingly difficult to secure the buildings at the proper times," says Jack Siller, facilities operations and management support associate. "We were losing medical equipment and even computers. It's hard to put an exact figure on the amount of loss, but it kept adding up and we needed to do something about it."

Logical Solution

Given the fact that thousands of doctors, nurses, students and support staff needed to gain varying degrees of access at various times, electronic access control was the only logical solution. Going back to metal keys wasn't even an option. And while a few, isolated closed circuit television cameras were stationed around the campus, the security staff knew that this was not a sufficient deterrent to theft.

"Our biggest concern is focused on the exterior doors of our campus, but monitoring more than 200 doors presented a monumental task," Siller says. "It became obvious that we needed to have some type of integrated access control and monitoring capabilities."

No longer willing to endure the monetary losses associated with stolen equipment, the UTMB-PD set out in 1996 to install a comprehensive security system.

"In our first system, the loop communication configuration that we had in place created many troubleshooting problems that were difficult to find and repair," recalls Sillers. "We also faced a Y2K incompatibility problem, and we never received much technical support from the vendor."

Search for Reliable System

In search of a newer system more capable of reliably meeting their security needs, UTMB-PD Police Chief Charles Brown, Police Captain A.C. Schaper, and the rest of their team invited several vendors to demonstrate various systems.

"We made a tall `wish list' of requirements that any system had to meet," says Siller. "Then we compared specifications to find matches. After this research we asked for vendor quotes and compared the prices with the functions. Like every other non-profit institution, we needed a system that best met our needs at the lowest cost. In our case, that was the package from InfoGraphics."

InfoGraphic Systems, Garden Grove, CA, has been developing and producing security system hardware and software for more than 20 years.

Installation of the Graphical User Interface version of the InfoGraphics DIAMOND Series at UTMB was completed at the end of 1998. This fully integrated electronic access control system was able to automatically configure itself to all of the new, and even previously existing, hardware--speeding the integration process.

The first area to receive the new access control system was the labor, delivery, and nursery areas. The need for infant protection was one of UTMB's greatest concerns. No one wanted unauthorized individuals to go wandering into and out of areas where babies and children were housed. Integration of the patient care, business, research and clinical areas came next.

"We now have 231 doors connected to the system with either card swipe readers or relays to lock and unlock the doors according to the time of day," Siller says. "For those doors that are still locked by key, we are able to monitor them with contacts. All in all, we programmed approximately 1,400 alarm points into the system."

Meeting the Challenge

"The challenge was to get it to all work together," Siller says, "but the process was fairly easy to carry out because the technical support staff of the company is very knowledgeable. Additionally, the `user' classes are full, hands-on technical training sessions. The accuracy of the installation design, along with the continuous availability of the vendor during the process, also helped a lot."

The new system allows the UTMB-PD to issue full-time access cards to doctors, nurses, staff employees and even contract workers. However, students receive a different degree of access, since the students' clinical rotations change as often as monthly. Student cards are limited to prescribed areas, on certain days of the week, and even at precise times of the day.

"Once installed, this system certainly met our security needs. Theft has gone way down," says Siller. "More importantly, having electronic access control of the doors has allowed our police department to focus their efforts on higher security matters than walking to each door to lock it. With a campus of our size, this has a very large impact on improving public safety."