Caring for your premises

With large premises and expensive equipment held on site, hospitals often face a number of security threats. While ensuring the safety of staff, patients, visitors and assets is always a top priority, achieving effective security is also a challenge, especially in face of the recently announced cuts to public spending.

From an operational perspective, buildings such as hospitals can be easy targets to intruders, as they constantly face a natural flow of people entering or exiting buildings. In addition, the fact that these premises hold expensive equipment and machinery as well as confidential patient data and medications means that they can be extremely attractive to thieves. As a result, a combination of different security measures is often used to protect the sites, ensuring that patients can receive the best care and feel safe.  

Round the clock security
CCTV is particularly effective in enhancing the security of hospitals, by acting as a deterrent to criminals and trespassers, while monitoring the activity of authorised personnel such as staff, patients and visitors.

A specific element of CCTV, known as Video Content Analysis (VCA) is increasingly being employed. VCA is the name given to the automatic analysis of CCTV images, which is used to create meaningful information about the content. For example, it can be used to automatically detect intruders or count the number of people entering or leaving an area.

If the area that needs protecting is particularly extensive and will require multiple screens to be monitored at once, there are also ways to be as efficient as possible, especially at night. Recent advances in technology mean you could streamline this process by employing either motion sensors for the CCTV, where the cameras only start rolling when there is movement, or by using fence-mounted vibration detectors that trigger an alert in the security control room.

Another element of CCTV that can prove invaluable for the health sector is BS8418, the British Standard for remotely monitored, detector-activated CCTV systems.

When deployed, BS8418 compliant solutions consist of cameras and detectors placed strategically around a site, linked together by specialised transmission equipment to a Remote Video Response Centre (RVRC). Here, operators can visually confirm what is happening, call up on-screen plans of the site and even issue verbal warnings to intruders via on-site speakers. If necessary, the RVRC operators can also alert the police who, as the incident is confirmed visually and is associated with a URN (Unique Reference Number), should provide a rapid response. The ability to provide a rapid response when incidents occur is a priceless feature that should convince health sector premises to employ this technology more widely.

The presence of security guards is essential for responding to intruder detection. Security officers can man access points and be on hand should visitors, patients or staff require any kind of assistance. They are often also responsible for managing technological aspects of a site’s security strategy, such as CCTV or access control.  

Make your mark
Hospitals and care homes hold very expensive and specialised equipment, and loss of such items could cost establishments thousands of pounds. Property marking can reduce the risk of theft by discouraging criminals and allowing the institution to trace back any lost or stolen piece of equipment.

Property marking may be defined as the permanent identification of items to deter thieves by providing evidence that links them to the scene of a theft and enables stolen goods to be returned to their rightful owners. This is achieved either by marking the owner’s name and address or, increasingly, by the use of technology to enable property to be traced to its origin through a database register. The object is to render stolen goods useless by enabling the police to catch and convict criminals and the BSIA has established a dedicated Cash and Property Marking Section to help owners to make the best use of this powerful deterrent. Members of the section have recorded significant progress, both in ensuring criminal convictions and deterring crime by the use of warnings advertising the use of property marking technology at particular locations.  

The Royal Hospital in Belfast was among the first health care providers to employ the system to tackle the theft of thousands of pounds worth of property including medical equipment. The effectiveness of such initiatives is based on the sound principle that marked property is easily traceable and difficult for criminals to explain.

Information destruction
The healthcare sector holds vast amounts of sensitive patient data and keeping it out of the wrong hands involves not only comprehensive in-house protection but also established procedures for its secure disposal. The risks are wide ranging, which is why the need for secure disposal extends beyond physical documents to include information held on computers and storage devices, as well as other potential means of access to data such as staff identity documents and uniforms. Computer equipment, for example, must never be disposed of until all the personal information has been securely removed, such as by destroying the hard disk.

The health sector is increasingly looking towards professional information destruction companies to ensure that their confidential material is disposed of in a legally compliant manner. Each individual record lost cost UK organisations an average of £64 in 2009, according to the third annual UK study sponsored by data protection firm, PGP Corporation.

The BSIA’s ID section’s remit is to assure good practice through established standards for the collection, transportation and destruction of confidential material. Its members collect confidential waste at source and provide a fully traceable service up to the point of destruction. The process consists of waste collection by secure transport, inspection, removal and destruction of rubbish, and the shredding, pulping and recycling or incineration of other material.

Access control
Effective security technology that’s easy to use is a feature of smart access control systems, which represent the next layer of protection for health sector buildings. Depending on the location and sensitivity of the building or area involved, access control measures can range from paper-based logging systems for temporary visitors’ permits through to access control cards using radio frequency identification (RFID) chips for more convenient proximity reading of card details and activation of gates, turnstiles and vehicle barriers. Most hospitals and care homes now use access control systems such as electronic ID cards to identify staff, and ensure access to certain areas is allowed to authorised people only.

In addition, systems such as Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and fire roll-call software can prove valuable as well.

ANPR is particularly useful on the larger sites where a high volume of staff, patients and visitors are driving in and out of the premises. ANPR will monitor the entry of vehicles on-site using CCTV-style cameras and computer software, which identify number plates. Some systems will also store photographs of the driver and vehicle for subsequent analysis. This sophisticated software will draw attention to on-site (or off-site) security staff and will enable them to identify any returning cars that are considered suspicious. Furthermore, it allows critical information to be passed to the police to assist in the pursuit, identification and capture of offenders.

Fire roll-call software, on the other hand, automatically generates a report containing vital information as to the whereabouts of individuals inside a building in the event of a fire. This software operates via the access control smart card or fob that an employee uses to gain access or exit a building. In the event of an emergency the fire roll-call software alerts occupants while simultaneously activating the report at a safe pre-determined remote point.

Expert advice
The nature of work conducted onsite and the individual threats and risks that the premises may face, determines what security measures will be required for each individual hospital. Making the most of technology and choosing methods that will do the job properly is important but this can be a daunting task, particularly for those who are not familiar with the technologies that are available on the market.

Security consultancies can guide whoever is in charge of procuring the security solutions for hospitals or care homes towards the best security measures that will be of most use. A consultancy will conduct a thorough risk assessment, providing essential advice on security reviews and audits, development of security polices and strategy, guarding services, systems design, tender management and security awareness training. They will work with their client to identify threats and ensure that business continuity is addressed, therefore eliminating the chance for corners to be cut.

Based on this assessment the security consultancy will then suggest various measures that could benefit the premises. These may differ depending on the requirements and risks faced by each client but they could include the likes of CCTV, and access control.

With the government’s proposed public sector budget cuts in people’s minds, it is vital that security is not ignored and corners are not cut, and although it may not seem so at the beginning, taking advantage of the expertise offered by a quality security organisation can lead to future savings and efficiencies.

BSIA members meet strict quality criteria and as such, the Association’s website is a great place to start when considering your next security investment. To locate a supplier in your area, or to find out more about the solutions mentioned in this article, visit our website.

The British Security Industry Association (BSIA) is the professional trade association of the UK security industry. Its members produce over 70 per cent of the country’s security products and services to strict quality standards.

For more information:
Tel: 0845 3893889
Web: www.bsia.co.uk