Visitor Management Solutions Protect Hospital Staff, Patients and Guests
(06/08/2007)

The health sector has to deal with an ever-increasing plethora of security issues and needs to consider the options available to help them. The security requirements of hospitals are complex, with staff facing a range of risks and threats on a daily basis as they work to protect patients, their colleagues and visitors.

The Department of Health released statistics in December 2005 indicating that 84 per cent of NHS staff have a direct, hands-on role with patients. Coupled with figures released in 2006 showing one in 22 (60,385) NHS employees were assaulted by patients and their relatives whilst at work, it is important that the health sector considers an effective method to protect its staff.

The presence of security guards is helping to deter crime and could be further reduced if coupled with the use of visitor management solutions.

With choice in terms of distinct benefits and cost, a solution is available on the market to suit every need. Hospitals can choose from three different systems; hand-written paper-based, PC or online.

Every hospital has a duty of care not only to its employees, but to all those visiting the premises. Health & Safety regulations state that every person within a building must be made aware of emergency exits and procedures. There are now visitor management solutions on the market which can help; providing details of building layouts and procedures which can be printed on the back of guest passes.

Richard Farmer, UK Sales Director at Kalamazoo Security Print, said: "Medical equipment theft is a serious problem, costing the NHS millions of pounds every year. Public access environments such as hospitals can be viewed by thieves as easy targets. Accident & Emergency departments can be particularly vulnerable as it can only take one incident for the attention of staff to be immediately focused elsewhere."

"In February 2006 for example, York Hospital suffered a serious breach of security whereby thieves managed to take £300,000 of endoscopy equipment used for internal examinations in a raid. Visitor management solutions can prevent unauthorised visitors from accessing the building any further than reception, or better still, can deter them from entering in the first place."

Manual visitor passes can be purchased in standard or bespoke packages with a logo and colour scheme incorporated to suit any hospital's needs. They are simple and effective to use; visitors just fill-in their details onto a pass which is then automatically transferred onto an integral register. This information is kept confidential with a discretion sheet.

For hospitals with higher security requirements, advanced hand-written pass systems with added features are available. Features include specialist printing techniques such as Kalamazoo's CopyVoid.

Richard Farmer said: "CopyVoid is used to protect passes from fraudulent photocopies, so that each time a pass is copied, the word 'void' appears, rendering it useless. Time-dependent ink is a further security feature we use, which after a set period of typically 24 hours, will appear with the word 'expired', ensuring each pass has a clearly defined lifespan."

Kalamazoo's PC-based solution VisitorNet, makes it easy to notify staff of the arrival of visitors with e-mail and SMS text alert notifications that can be sent almost instantaneously. The system gives hospitals the ability to capture detailed information and quickly pre-book guests into the system and pre-print badges in preparation for their arrival, streamlining the check in process.

Using an electronic signature pad, organisations can digitally capture a visitor's signature to show acknowledgement of important information such as emergency evacuation procedures.

Kalamazoo's online system, iVisitor, is particularly ideal for multi-sited hospitals as through a secure web-server, located off-premises, it offers a high level of security. iVisitor requires no installation of software or additional licences for extra users, making it suited for hospitals looking for a visitor management system, without the need to compromise existing IT infrastructure.

Accessible from any computer at any time of the day, staff can enter a visitor's details and pre-book their arrival time into the system via an on-line portal. Like VisitorNet, an e-mail can be sent to automatically notify the host of a guest's arrival.

Richard Farmer said: "It is important that hospitals recognise that security is a process; one that should include bespoke systems to protect employees, patients and visitors. As crime changes, gone are the days when visitors to hospitals can come and go as they please. Kalamazoo can provide visitor management solutions to provide a safe, professional and cost-effective way to help hospital staff with their daily job of keeping their building secure."