Detecting motion in a restricted area of a hospital. Knowing when a treatment room door is propped open. Recognizing unsafe air quality levels within a facility.
Understanding each one of these (common) scenarios is part of a comprehensive approach to healthcare facilities’ physical safety. However, any strategy for maintaining a secure environment must also comply with stringent industry regulations that protect patient privacy and the identity of facility users.
Monitoring healthcare spaces, especially in areas without cameras, can be challenging—but an IoT sensor strategy can help healthcare IT administrators balance security with privacy. In places where cameras are either unnecessary or restricted, cloud-connected sensors can collect real-time physical and environmental data to monitor everything from healthcare facility entrances to hallways and waiting rooms—bolstering safety for both patients and staff.
Monitoring Physical Movements
IoT motion sensors work by detecting movement in a defined area. These devices can also be used to identify when spaces are occupied or vacant, which can help provide situational awareness to allow privacy in certain physical areas.
Smart sensors are also designed to detect motion and entry events, aiding access control initiatives. When triggering events occur, a sensor can alert staff. These may include unauthorized access, trespassing, theft, occupancy concerns, and vandalism in zones of the facility that are privacy-sensitive (including patient and treatment rooms and staffing areas, such as conference rooms and employee break rooms).
Environmental sensors can also deliver audio insights for events such as loud noises and/or breaking glass. Where cameras can’t be installed, audio sensors provide protection through security functions such as two-way audio with broadcasting. Where video is permitted, data from audio sensors can be augmented by synchronizing it with video.
Monitoring Environmental Conditions
Hospitals have the reputation of being the last place a person should be if they’re sick, due to the possibility of exposure to varied health risks. IoT sensors can also help ensure that the healthcare facility doesn’t cause sick building syndrome (SBS, in which building occupants suffer health and/or comfort issues due to poor air quality)—particularly concerning for long-term users of a facility, such as your staff.
More broadly, environmental sensors can provide a wide range of metrics to protect the well-being of all users of a healthcare facility. These include air quality monitoring, vape and THC detection, humidity and temperature insights, and audio analytics.
Managing indoor air quality (IAQ) at scale can be challenging. Often, ways of measuring a building’s IAQ are separate from other systems; this siloed approach limits the usefulness of the measurements. Connecting building systems with IoT technology makes them more effective, allowing for instant communication of the resulting data to other building systems, facilitating rapid, meaningful action. For example, when smoke, vape, carbon dioxide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), or hazardous gases are detected at particular thresholds, the interconnected IoT sensor can activate other systems as needed, whether that means increasing ventilation to a patient room or even signaling for evacuation of a facility in an emergency scenario. This is achievable via fully open APIs, where data from these sensors can be ported into other systems at the user’s discretion.
IoT air quality sensors can be installed anywhere without infringing on the privacy of patients, visitors, or staff. When paired with a security sensor (facing a restroom’s exterior door, for example), the sensor and camera can illustrate what’s happening without causing a privacy violation.
Operational Advantages of IoT Sensors
Healthcare facilities of all sizes need to be able to protect the health of their users while adhering to compliance initiatives, deterring crime, responding to critical situations and emergencies, and gathering evidence for possible incident investigations and resolution. Time is at a premium for making important—and quite possibly life-saving—decisions. IoT sensors can help improve operational:
- Efficiency: IoT sensors play an essential role in delivering operational efficiencies. Your onsite team benefits because notifications are available to help them cover the blind spots that may exist for security guards and patrols, streamlining the staffing required to secure sites.
- Speed: Emergency response time is optimized, thanks to real-time alerts. Verified threats can be used to trigger immediate action to neutralize threats and protect facilities. Where merited, immediately available risk data may be shared with emergency services, such as through after-hours security alerts. When augmented by integrating environmental sensor data with camera footage (where viable) and real-time alerts, these sensors can further optimize response times to risks.
- Compliance: Last, but certainly not least, IoT sensors can enhance compliance with industry regulations. When devices are protected with a zero-trust system architecture and end-to-end encryption, sensors ensure compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), while also ensuring appropriate safeguards for the creation, receipt, storage, and transmission of protected health information and electronic protected health information (PHI/ePHI).
Healthcare security has unique needs. Unique approaches must go beyond the visual capacities of security cameras. IoT sensors and the robust data they provide can help deliver the security required for patients, staff, and visitors alike.
