Healthcare Facilities Have Specific Security Needs

December 28th, 2022

Healthcare facilities in Billings, MT run the gamut of different needs for Americans. Some facilities are large complexes, like hospitals. Others are smaller clinics, serving neighborhoods, while others are pharmacies that provide the medications people need.

Regardless of what kind of healthcare facility might be operating in Billings, MT, the one issue they all face is the threat of theft. Because healthcare facilities store medication and narcotics, they are often targeted for theft. This is especially true in times like now, with an opioid crisis, where these medications can’t be easily made in homemade labs. This means healthcare facilities must take their security precautions seriously, and here are a few ways to do so.

Access Control Systems

The number one security feature healthcare facilities need is good access control. Access control is modernized systems that control points of entry and exit. In other words, this is “door security.” Doors are much more sophisticated now than simple locks, keys, and deadbolts. Keycards, numeric keypads, and even biometric access like fingerprints and eye or facial scans are all options for controlling who comes in and out of an area.

Access control systems mean that just because a key is lost, there’s no need to change locks and issue new keys to everyone. A lost keycard, or a numeric code that leaks can be removed from a system. Access control also records activity, so now when doors are opened and closed, the time this occurred and the code or keycard that was used is on record.

Storage Control

Unfortunately, pharmaceutical diversion is a significant concern for healthcare facilities. Because they have narcotics on the property with a high black market value, some unethical employees take the drugs themselves to sell. Old fashioned storage methods such as locked cabinets will open for anyone that has a key.

However, new safe, vault and cabinet systems have the same modern access features as doors. Medication can even be specifically tracked so that when someone accesses the system, the time, user, and the item removed is logged. This makes it much easier to verify legitimate medication access versus pharmaceutical diversion.

Surveillance Cameras

This is always a good general security boost for any facility, be it commercial, educational, or medical. Surveillance cameras do double duty. Primarily, they act as a deterrent to theft, since people seeing surveillance cameras in the area are far less likely to commit crimes within the field of view of those cameras.

Photographic evidence, the second reason, is why they are a deterrence. Cameras are much more reliable than human eye-witnesses, as they don’t forget or distort an incident they see. They can be handed over to police to aid an investigation and then, in the event of an arrest, can be turned over to prosecution as evidence to get a conviction. This makes potential thieves—both outside and internally—far less likely to act.

If you have a healthcare facility here in Billings, MT and you’d like to have a more secure property; we can help. Contact us, and let us assess the state of your property, then start making recommendations on how you can boost your security.