Healthcare sites always present complex access challenges. They must be welcoming, accessible public spaces. They often occupy large, sprawling areas; unfamiliar faces and first-time visitors are around every single day. At the same time, these premises inevitably have valuable and/or sensitive assets, including confidential data and medicines, which must be secured. Patients, doctors, nurses and support staff must feel safe. In labs and treatment suites, restricted materials and valuable equipment need both security and a compliant system for logging every access event. This has always been healthcare’s ‘business-as-usual’: it is a complex environment for any security manager.

Challenges and opportunities

Modern hospitals and clinics, however, now face an extra level of challenges – and opportunities. Their access system may benefit from integration with fire detection, CCTV and other building solutions, for example. With so many temporary and contract workers employed on-site, access is in constant motion. It needs to be tailored to specific and very different needs and, equally, revoked when any time-limited tasks are complete.

In case of a security breach, rapid investigation is essential. Tracing and logging access to specific areas may also be a legal requirement, especially with new NIS2 regulations introduced for critical infrastructure, which demand proactive “hybrid” cyber/physical security frameworks for many healthcare premises. Relying on manual or siloed systems to complete these tasks could eat up hours or even days for security and even medical staff. Happily, there is a better way to work.

Digital access 

The solution, according to Assa Abloy, is access digitalisation. Digital access devices and credentials help to keep every hospital user safe. Unauthorised access is minimized because unapproved key copies rarely circulate and lost credentials are cancelled with a click. Employees and equipment are safer because more access points may be digitally secured. Issuing contractors and temporary staff with digital or even mobile credentials can further simplify the granting, amending and revoking of site access. Security teams waste less time handing out and collecting keys. Intelligent, intuitive software helps facilities managers stay in control even while they are off-site. Logging access to specific assets or areas becomes quick and simple: a few clicks rather than the laborious process of keeping manual logs up to date.

“Access is such an important part of any holistic approach to safety,” says David Moser, SVP and Head of Digital Access Solutions at Assa Abloy Opening Solutions EMEIA. “Digitalising access immediately puts powerful tools in the hands of hospital management, delivering tangible daily benefits to meet security challenges head-on, improving efficiency and regulatory compliance at the same time.”

“There’s now a device to extend existing systems with digital control at almost any access point, whatever building solution is in place. Alternatively, we can equip customers with whole solutions to implement digital access from scratch, without invasive installation. So many efficiency and security benefits are within reach.”

Three real-life examples which illustrate the ways healthcare premises have benefited by using digital access beyond the most obvious security and safety aspects:

• Staff convenience, as well as safety - By integrating Assa Abloy’s Aperio wireless locks natively with an ARD access management solution, at the Centre Hospitalier Métropole Savoie (CHMS) in France, for example, access rights tailored to individual staff and contractors could be issued and real-time control could also be implemented, helping to boost site safety. Because Aperio locks are wireless, the hospital introduced more layers of security without incurring excessive installation or operating costs, including for sensitive offices and drug stores. Access point functionality at CHMS now includes real-time management logs and remote door opening.
• Time-saving workflows -  The hospital MAZ, in Zaragoza, Spain, also implemented a new Assa Abloy digital solution, using Smartair, with real-time access functionality. Their online wireless access management system saves security managers’ time because they can implement all changes via the central system in real time, without needing to waste time walking through the hospital. Staff convenience is further enhanced: they now carry a smartcard programmed with their personalised access permissions. Custom-made cards double as employee IDs, so 625 staff and approximately 100 contractors only need to carry one. This Assa Abloy system is also mobile access ready, making it easy for the hospital to issue and manage mobile keys in the future without hardware changes.
• Medicine control and other compliance challenges - Managing physical keys can impact nursing care, as pharmacy managers at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, UK, discovered. An older, mechanical system made it difficult for them to keep track of who held the right key. Searching for that person wasted time. They identified a better solution for convenient secure access to controlled medicines: programmable keys. With their Cliq programmable key access solution, power to digital and electromechanical locks is supplied by a standard battery inside every key, so no wires are required – making it an ideal retrofit solution for hospital doors, cabinets and mobile drug trolleys. Audit trails for locks and padlocks are available on demand: nurse managers can quickly see who has accessed cabinets or drug trolleys.

“Our expertise in access, established over decades, enables us to work with customers to get their access ready for what’s ahead,” adds David Moser.