Assisted Living and Nursing Homes
Assisted living and nursing homes are unique facilities when it comes to access control. Pairing residential accommodations with healthcare — whether it’s focused on disabled individuals who do or do not choose to live independently, or elderly patients who require convalescent care — presents a complex set of requirements. These facilities are where healthcare providers devote themselves to helping people who need medical attention; but there’s also the need to protect against unauthorized access, theft of medications, and patient wandering. At the same time, these communities must maintain a level of accessibility and openness. Plus, the onset of COVID-19 has introduced new challenges related to patient monitoring, reducing the spread of infection, and maintaining a separation between those who have contracted the virus and those who have not.
Scalable, Web-Based Telephone Entry
Hirsch’s intelligent, integrated Enterphone family of products is a feature-rich telephone entry system that can scale to care facilities of any size, protecting residents and staff from unauthorized access. The systems are encrypted, securing staff, resident, and visitor information, and are also incredibly rugged, easily withstanding excessive use day after day. Enterphone products are configurable and administered using a common web-based browser, allowing easy remote programming and management, multi-language capabilities, and personalized displays. Features like full access, view-only, and no-access administrative permissions, in addition to exportable user-selectable event history, allow facility staff to customize security and easily pull reports to track who is coming and going.
Hands-Free, Touchless Access
With the threat of COVID-19 still genuine, frictionless, hands-free solutions are a crucial part of any organization’s efforts to create a healthier, more hygienic environment, and healthcare facilities are no exception. Hirsch’s MobilisID leverages Bluetooth and capacitive technologies to allow for complete frictionless access. Loaded onto a user’s smart device, the mobile application acts as a physical credential. A doctor or nursing staff can keep their mobile device in their pocket, then wave their hand near the reader, and the door unlocks. This is especially useful in care facilities where frictionless solutions can streamline operational efficiencies. Users are also less likely to lose their phone than they are a traditional access control card, making this a far more secure option that takes advantage of the constant connectivity in today’s world, while simultaneously reducing touchpoints and, in turn, the risk of spreading infection. MobilisID can also integrate with ADA-compliant automatic door hardware for a totally touchless solution.
Access Control as a Service
When it comes to budgets, assisted living and nursing homes need to keep their costs to a minimum. But maintaining affordability shouldn’t mean these critical care facilities have to sacrifice security. In today’s connected world, the flexibility of the cloud facilitates access control-as-a-service (ACaaS), which enables users to take advantage of the latest technologies in access control with lower upfront and infrastructural costs. With Hirsch’s Hirsch Velocity Cirrus, instead of purchasing the wide array of infrastructure and technologies needed to support an access control system, healthcare facilities can leverage off-site storage and processing capabilities and pay for just the amount that they need as a subscription-style operational expenditure.
Nurse Call System Integrations
With Hirsch’s cyber-centric Liberty (for single sites) and Freedom Access Control (for multi-site facilities) systems are 100% web-based physical security systems, meaning a compact web server appliance administers the entire system and is accessible from any web browser or browser-enabled device. Both IT-based access control systems are affordable, flexible options for assisted living and nursing home communities. With Liberty and Freedom, no reader is even required at the door. Their software-driven architecture uses the location of a mobile device to determine a user’s proximity to a door for hands-free ingress and egress; however, the systems can also be used in parallel with conventional reader doors.
What makes Liberty/Freedom even more fitting for assisted living and nursing home environments is its ability to integrate with nurse call systems, allowing residents and patients to alert a nurse or other healthcare staff member instantly when they are in need of help.
Video Management System Integrations
Additionally, Freedom’s video management system (VMS) integration solution connects directly with a 3VR, Milestone, or Exacq network video recorder (NVR) system and pulls the relevant camera live feeds into the Freedom web administration page. Maintaining a persistent connection to the NVR system allows for the camera feeds to be seamlessly viewed live. Using the live integration, nursing home administrators can view both the access control event logs from the same page as the camera channels. For every access event, whether access-granted or access-denied, the log event will include the camera feed time stamped to that event, giving staff a single pane to view security events and a streamlined process of keeping residents and patients safe.
Tracking Critical Assets and People
Assisted living and nursing homes also need to track critical assets to ensure they haven’t been lost or stolen. This can include tracking where wheelchairs and gurneys are stored or tagging packages that are at high risk of theft, such as medication. These and other customizable applications can be accomplished by using radio-frequency identification (RFID) and near-field communication (NFC) tags. The same solutions can be used to monitor the location of patients at risk for wandering, or to trace the movements of a patient who may be infected with COVID-19.
Ultra-high frequency (UHF) technology is especially fitting for such use cases, and Hirsch’s UHF Tags portfolio features high-performance passive RFID designs for applications requiring long-read distances (in the ballpark of 18 feet), making it an excellent option for any healthcare setting. Hirsch’s frictionless, batteryless uTrust UHF Credentials are equally convenient options for any hands-free environment, including care facilities, allowing staff to keep their access cards in their pocket, badge, or bag at all times. uTrust UHF Credentials can also keep track of people to increase personal safety and capture guest/visitor data for added facility security.
Hirsch’s access control product portfolio tackles the complex requirements of assisted living communities and nursing home facilities from different angles, covering everything from telephone entry to totally touchless access to video management system integrations.
Assisted Living Solutions Brief
Minimal contact and totally touchless access control solutions keep community members and staff safe and healthy.
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