Public Health Center
- Public Facility
- 5 stories
- 194,000 square feet
Site Description
This public health center is a five story, 194,000 square foot facility housing a 32,000 square foot forensic lab, bio-medical facilities, police evidence storage, a public hospital, and the City Morgue.
The Situation
A large public hospital on the East Coast heavily involved with law enforcement will remain anonymous within this article for the purpose of security.
The hospital houses a criminal evidence storage facility representing a huge security risk. Because of this risk, high-risk countermeasures were considered as necessary in the design of the security system. Key to the security system was the need to control, record and limit activity to sensitive areas to those persons with the proper authority.
The Keri Solution
Keri Systems’ access control system was chosen because of its flexibility and expandability. A Keri access control system can consist of up to 256 controlled doors running on one local network. Up to 255 sites of Keri local networks of 256 doors can be controlled by a single software package. One operator can control up to 65,000 doors. The network’s expandability in one- door increments means additions are always easy and inexpensive.
Proximity readers were chosen to control electric door locks for more than 60 doors. The proximity readers are the most user friendly and by far the most vandal resistant of all reader designs. In hospitals, security readers are often damaged because of impact of gurneys and other heavy equipment. Because of its design, the Keri reader is practically indestructible.
The Keri MS-7000 Super Star medium range reader was the reader of choice because of its extended read range and because it is an excellent compromise between cost and read range. A standard credit card size proximity card can be read up to 14 inches away from the reader. The cards can be read without having to be removed from pockets or wallets. Hospital workers who may have their hands full with items are offered more convenience and ease of usage than they would experience with typical short read range readers.
Another important consideration when using this reader in a hospital is sanitary or hygienic conditions. In many areas doors are automatically opened when a door switch is depressed. Because no contact is made between the reader and card, or hand and reader, contamination and the spread of bacteria is minimized when operating automatic doors. It also should be noted that because there is no contact between reader and card wear is not a function of usage. So, the maintenance requirement is extremely low as compared to other reader technologies and mechanical switches.
The Keri proximity card can be obtained as a photo ID badge as well as the proximity reading card. Therefore, hospital workers need only carry one badge for ID and access security. The employee photo on the card and the historical record of employee activity makes this hospital’s access system a very powerful security package.
System operational control is maintained from three separate divisions within the facility. Each division handles their own access requirements from PC workstations that are all tied into one common database. Communication with the Keri network can be connected via existing LAN or WAN interface for a cost-effective solution to long range communication. Adding remote sites to the access system with central control maintained at one central administration and recording center is easily accommodated.
As a requirement within most hospitals, restricting access to specific areas on a per employee or visitor basis is vital. Keri Systems’ ability to combine different time parameters with individual doors provides a very flexible time scheduling feature—the scheduling of times in which a card can be used at a specific door—a must benefit when dealing with three different shifts of employees.
As this hospital is an evidence and forensics laboratory, an accurate record of employee access activity (audit trail) is critical. The Keri Doors software stores historical events collected from the various door controllers. To ensure that the event data are not lost, the door controllers will automatically send the event information to the central file when the memory of the controller is near capacity. Flexible reporting schemes allow the administrator to choose events based on a number of criteria to quickly find the needed information.
The Doors software package is one of the few programs that provides a “Route Trace” report allowing the hospital administrator to trace a historical path of an employee—especially useful for tracking individuals entering highly sensitive areas. The software’s attendance reporting provides the hospital a detailed record of all cardholders access activity.
Results
The State (where this hospital is located) has set incredibly high security standards for its legal/medical infrastructure. With regard to the access control system, in addition to restricting access to critical areas, access activity and other reports may be called into evidence should an incident occur. The Keri access system has a solid performance record with hospital officials and will be expanded in the future.
Equipment Used
- 30 PXL-250 Controllers
- 30 SB-293 Satellite Boards
- 60 MS-7000 SuperStar Proximity Readers
- DoorsTM Access Control System Software with Badging Option
