When the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Barbados began renovations to its security system, the main objective was to update the old autonomous system to ensure an agile response to any security incident.
by Tyco Security Products*
The Queen Elizabeth Hospital is the most important medical institution in Barbados, an island country of the Lesser Antilles, with a population of approximately 284,000 people. Located in Bridgetown, the capital of the country, the mission of the hospital refers to "(...) being the main institution in the region in offering excellent second- and third-level health services, focused on the patient, as well as providing professional health training in Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean and beyond."
Since its opening in 1964, the hospital has increased its number of beds from 464 to 600. The staff is composed of about 2,400 people who provide specialized and top quality health services in various areas such as gynecology, pediatrics, obstetrics, cardiac surgery, plastic surgery, psychotherapy, radiology, radiography and ophthalmology, among others.
With this diversity of services, Queen Elizabeth Hospital is considered the leading medical institution serving the population of Barbados.
The challenge
Queen Elizabeth Hospital has a very strong reputation among Barbadians and citizens of other neighbouring nations who do not have access to top quality health services. With this in mind, it was important to take into account the safety and security risks of patients and visitors in order to ensure that the entity operates smoothly, something that hospital staff did not achieve unless they had full visibility of the number of visitors at any given time.
To upgrade the surveillance and access control system, the hospital hired Tansal Akcayli, president and CEO of Consolidated Systems & Supplies (CSS), a Bridgetown-based systems integrator. The company was hired to centralize the hospital's security operations and integrate the functionality of the surveillance system with an access control platform.
According to Akcayli, the main goal of queen Elizabeth hospital's director of security was to monitor visitor behavior and activity in the corridors and along the perimeter of the building. It was not uncommon for patients to receive visits from several relatives, which could cause overcrowding in the rooms and other problems for nurses caring for other patients in the shared rooms. There were also many cases of visitors entering the hospital outside the visiting hours stipulated by the hospital, making it difficult to keep the doors secured.
Paula Agbowu, director of engineering services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, agreed that a key concern was unrestricted access to the hospital at any time of the day. "The hospital relied on locks, but keys tend to go astray," Agbowu said.
In addition to overcrowding, the hospital has also had to face security issues associated with a lack of control over who enters and leaves the building. Although Barbados has a low crime rate, there have been several incidents of weapons entering the facility.
In the past, the hospital used a myriad of simple and vulnerable surveillance and access control systems that functioned as autonomous systems.
The solution
Several years ago, the hospital's board of directors approved the disbursement of funds to install an integrated surveillance and access control system. With advice from Consolidated Systems & Supplies, the hospital selected a security solution that included cameras from American Dynamics and Software House's C•CURE access control solution.
"The option selected was C•CURE because of its scalability and because it is a networking solution," Akcayli added. "By implementing this system, the hospital can expand its access control system as the needs and size of the institution increase."
The project did not fail to pose some challenges. "From a technical point of view our main difficulty was that the building where the hospital operates is very old, which made it difficult to install cables," Akcayli said. "Additionally, it is a very large building and over the years new areas such as operating rooms and administrative offices have been added. All this had to be taken into account."
The project began with a reduced scope, with regular updates each year as circumstances required. It currently went from 64 cameras to 86, 70 of which are Fixed Discover cameras, while the remaining 16 are SpeedDome Optima domes, both from American Dynamics.
As for access control, the project started with 96 proximity readers and has now increased to 120. Currently, the hospital uses six Intellex digital video recorders from American Dynamics, which record up to a month of surveillance each.
The system has continued to grow as the hospital has made the decision to protect other areas to handle the flow of people into sensitive areas of the hospital. The project began with the protection of the pharmacy, nursing stations and IT room and recently expanded to operating rooms and administrative offices.
A new electronic access control system has also brought order and control, not only to the building, but has restricted access to general parking areas.
The integrated solution has simplified security operations, allowing guards to monitor facilities and remotely identify incidents," Akcayli said. "If someone is forcing a door, the system sends an alarm to the access control system to tell them that someone is trying to open the door. If there is a camera nearby, security personnel can visualize the area where the alarm was triggered."
Agbowu, the director of engineering services added that "the security system has helped reduce vulnerabilities in the hospital, specifically outside of normal working hours when people entered the hospital without permission from authorized staff. Another benefit is that the system helps the hospital with its overall disaster and recovery system by allowing it to open all the doors with one button in case a natural disaster occurs and people have to leave the building immediately."
"By combining access control with CCTV systems, we have been able to provide evidence to assist police in cases of people entering unauthorized areas and removing objects," Agbowu said.
Today, the hospital relies on the integrated security system to manage its daily operations. If an incident occurs, security personnel can now protect doors, gates and corridors at the push of a button. The security solution has also helped the hospital reduce violence, vandalism, prevent criminal activities (such as child abduction) and better manage its visiting hours.
The future
Queen Elizabeth Hospital is an institution that is constantly improving its practices and procedures, including organising medical conferences and scheduling training activities for staff. As for the infrastructure, there are also plans for renovation and remodeling of the building, which will soon result in another update of its security solution.
According to Agbowu, the hospital reviews its security systems every year, determining the need to add access control or install more cameras in more vulnerable areas.
"As time goes on, we hope to have all the facilities permanently protected. We also believe that we will take better advantage of the surveillance system because now the cameras are monitored daily," concludes Agbowu.
The future of the project contemplates the implementation of the unified video and security solution victor, which will allow the hospital to continue improving its security systems by managing cameras, both IP and analog, from a single interface.
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