Improving Emergency Access at Hospital Entrances
Saint Vincent Hospital responds to new patient safety law with Axis cameras, video intercoms in garage, and strobe siren, horn speaker and cameras at security center – controlled by an AXIS Camera Station video management system.
Facing changes in hospital regulations
Saint Vincent Hospital, in the heart of downtown Worcester, has been serving the health needs of Central Massachusetts for more than 130 years. Founded as a 12-bed community hospital in 1893, today the award-winning hospital resides in a state-of-the-art medical center with 297 beds and offers a range of specialties from robotic surgery and neonatal services to joint replacement, oncology, and cardiology care.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts passed Laura's Law, which regulates standards for lighting and signage at emergency department access points. The law also requires security and monitoring measures, including 24-hour surveillance with instant playback capabilities and two-way audio-video intercoms connected to a live operator. Additionally, the law mandates duress alarms at main entrances that can be activated by anyone, regardless of their ability to speak. In response to this new legislation, Saint Vincent Hospital made changes to its own patient entry points.
Because the hospital locks its main entrance doors at 8 p.m., it was important to provide patients with clear signage directing them to the emergency department doors, which remain open 24/7. “To satisfy the regulations, we not only upgraded signage at all public entrances, we also installed video intercoms at those locations, improved our outdoor lighting, and took the opportunity to upgrade our security camera system as well,” states Darrell Boling, Marketi Director of Facilities and Support Services for Saint Vincent Hospital.
Our new Axis technology lets us see everywhere in and around our campus. With better cameras, signage, and video intercoms, we’re able to react faster to patient and staff emergencies, and in some instances, even save a life.
Eliminating barriers to emergency access
The hospital partnered with Village Security, a full-service security firm and Axis partner, to implement an integrated solution. “One of the first things we did is install brightly lit Pedestal PRO blue call boxes embedded with 2N® IP Verso security intercoms at all the entrances,” explains Scott Koneczny, President and Owner of Village Security. “The blue and white LED lights point patients to the nearest open entrance to the hospital. And the embedded intercoms enable patients and visitors to communicate with hospital security. Assistive listening technology, known as an induction loop system, converts the intercom’s signal into an electromagnetic field that can be received directly by hearing aids or cochlear implants equipped with a telecoil, enhancing accessibility for individuals with hearing impairments. Each intercom is also equipped with an emergency button that, when pushed, signals the dispatch center that there’s a need for a rapid response.”
Village Security also installed durable 2N® IP Force video intercom call boxes throughout the employee garage, loading dock, patient parking garage, emergency department, and ambulance bay. “With these communication upgrades, along with better signage and additional campus lighting in place, Saint Vincent became one of the first hospitals in the state to achieve complete compliance with Laura’s Law,” boasts Boling.
Proving compliance leads to happier outcomes
Boling says that the call boxes and video intercoms serve a crucial role in patient care from the time the individual steps onto the Saint Vincent campus. One particularly moving story that he shared involved a baby suffering from hypoxia (insufficient oxygen). Without immediate intervention, the baby could have died.
“The distraught parents came to the ambulance bay, which, as a safety precaution, is always locked,” relates Boling. “Instead of racing to the nearest unlocked door, they pushed the emergency call button on the video intercom installed there, which alerted security to immediately notify the ER that someone was outside the ambulance door entrance. Within seconds, a response team was sent to the location and the baby was saved.”
Optimizing security resources
In addition to the video intercoms, implementing Laura’s Law also gave Saint Vincent an opportunity to begin replacing its antiquated analog camera system with new high-resolution Axis cameras. Village Security installed over a hundred Axis dome, panoramic, and multi-directional cameras throughout the facility. “We worked with the local Axis regional sales manager and designed the whole camera project using AXIS Site Designer, a tool that helps us optimize camera placement and factor storage and bandwidth usage,” explains Koneczny.
“The cameras cover interior areas of the hospital, as well as the parking garage where we previously had a lot of blind spots,” shares Boling. “With the new cameras, we even have great visibility along the main street leading to the medical center and can see if anyone is loitering around the hospital entrances.”
The cameras and video intercoms feed into Axis video management software housed in the hospital’s dispatch center. Whether someone calls for assistance through the video intercom or pushes the emergency button, an alert pops up on ACS and displays all the camera footage in that location so that security can see what’s happening in the surrounding area. If contact is made through pushing the emergency button, an Axis horn speaker and strobe siren goes off, helping to elevate attention to the call. In case of an elopement alert (a patient wandering off), security can use the mapping portion of ACS to quickly search video footage to identify the whereabouts of the individual by following the path of the installed cameras and the direction of the elopement.
“Having these tools at our disposal is a force multiplier helping us to do more with less,” says Boling. “We’re even using the cameras to monitor psychiatric patients instead of committing personnel to stand watch in each room.”
Implementing additional safety measures
Another security tool delivering great value to Saint Vincent has been AXIS License Plate Verifier. Boling tells of a shooting that occurred in the city. The shooter drove the injured person to the hospital, dumped him in the parking lot, and sped away. “Because the vehicle passed by a camera running AXIS License Plate Verifier, we were able to catch the plate number within ACS and share it with the Worcester Police Department,” relates Boling. “And with that information, they were able to identify the owner of the vehicle.”
Rolling out compliant solutions to other hospitals
Since undertaking the Laura’s Law compliance solution at Saint Vincent Hospital, Tenet Healthcare has begun rolling out the upgraded safety and security measures in other Massachusetts medical facilities that it owns and operates, including Metrowest Medical Center in Framingham and Leonard Morse Hospital in Natick.
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