Providing quality care has always been the main goal of any healthcare facility. In this new age of customer service, however, ensuring a positive patient and family experience comes in a close second. With hundreds of patients, legions of employees, and a revolving door of visitors and vendors, most hospitals rely on high-quality, integrated video surveillance to help promote a safe and secure environment.
Having high-quality security camera systems for hospitals can:
● Increase Safety. Plain and simple, cameras prevent crime. Vandals and burglars are less likely to damage or steal if they know they are being watched. Cameras can also extend the reach and efficiency of the Security Department by giving them “eyes on” problem areas.
● Improve Employee Productivity. In a perfect world, every employee would be a self-starter who works efficiently without supervision. The reality, however, can be very different. Knowing that their work areas are being monitored by security cameras can often motivate under-performing employees to work at their full capacity.
● Correct False Claims. Some believe hospitals not only have “deep pockets” but will go to any lengths to keep negative publicity about them out of the newspapers. Unscrupulous people may claim to have injured themselves on hospital grounds and threaten to litigate in a civil suit– “forcing” the hospital’s hand to settle out of court to ward off a reputation-damaging news story. Cameras can help avoid these groundless and time-consuming lawsuits by providing footage that either disproves or verifies the claim.
● Resolve Tense Situations. Verbal and even physical altercations among employees happen in all workplaces. Add patients, family members, and visitors– some of whom may be medicated or under stress– and
hospitals become one of the most likely places to find tense situations. Again, footage from video surveillance can help reconstruct the “he said/she said/they did” scenarios involved in these stressful situations.
● Saved Time. With remote video monitoring, Facilities Managers and other staff can monitor footage from video cameras in real time from remote locations, making the need to travel onto the hospital campus less likely if something out of the ordinary is noted.
Other benefits of a high-quality camera system in a hospital environment include deterring drug diversion, helping to prevent infant abduction, increasing parking lot safety, and supporting triage in disaster scenarios. Video surveillance equipment can also help monitor patients with dementia, Alzheimers and other cognitive disorders, and help centralize patient observation in some clinical settings.
The benefits of installing security cameras in your hospital are many– and upgrading your existing system is easier and more cost-effective than ever. Next Generation Security Concepts can help you create a safer hospital environment by determining your needs and designing a made-to-order system for you. Call us at 540-338-8160 for more information.
