One of the best known and most highly-respected medical establishments in the country, Addenbrooke’s Hospital currently employs 5,500 staff at its campus just outside Cambridge city centre. Also based at the site are 5,000 staff from other organisations, including research, temporary and part-time staff and a myriad of necessary subcontractors. During an average year, a total of over 280,000 outpatients, 25,000 day cases and 44,000 inpatients will be treated at Addenbrooke’s.
Add all those statistics together and you have the makings of a logistical and administrative nightmare. With this in mind, the Addenbrooke’s Hospital Trust recently turned to photo ID, visitor management and access control specialist Public Access Terminals (PAT) to co-ordinate the hospital’s various facilities.
The Trust had very specific requirements in terms of software and system performance. To understand the starting point for specifying a solution, it’s first necessary to grasp one of the biggest issues facing the Trust. Addenbrooke’s is a vast campus of buildings. Many of its facilities – including the oncology centre, and the paediatrics and neurological departments – are nationally famous and internationally-recognised. The site also plays host to the Rosie Hospital which, together with the gynaecology unit, serves the whole of the Cambridge area.
The sheer scale of the site means that car parking spaces are at something of a premium. This has resulted in much creative thinking, culminating in a well-integrated vehicle and transport policy devised by the Trust. Recently, an alliance has been forged with a local supermarket, whose car park hosts dozens of vehicles belonging to Addenbrooke’s staff. A free ‘commuter shuttle’ takes staff to and from the hospital at half-hourly intervals.
Operating in conjunction with a third party car parking solutions provider, PAT has installed a campus-wide car park control system that’s integrated with the hospital’s photo ID and access control system. But how does it all fit together, and how does the hospital’s security team manage the system set-up? When a new member of staff starts work at the hospital, one of their first tasks is to visit the Access Travel Department. Using a CCD image capture device, their photo is taken and stored permanently on the PAT Enterprise Security information (ESi) FrontDesk software. Badges are then made up, and may be customised in different colours and styles according to the relevant department.
The system is smart card-compatible, with a serial number linking card and individual end user. This link allows the PAT system to recognise each card from its own, dedicated serial number – thus enabling specific rights and privileges to be assigned to each cardholder. This will include access – or access denial – to whichever departments are applicable. This is particularly important when it comes to protecting maternity wards, pharmacies and operating theatres.
Three-tier system architecture
The main advantage of using ESi at Addenbrooke’s is that it employs a three-tier architecture that provides a ‘discreet’ middle tier object between the client PC and the hospital database – hosted on the main server.
When the client computer needs to retrieve information from the database, only that specific data is called up. This minimises the need for the security/IT/facilities team to read or write entries on the database. Crucially, it also reduces the opportunity for data to become corrupted or accidentally deleted.
ESi also enables some very specific reporting functions to be built-in to the software without needing to introduce filters to the database. This allows the security team to customise reports, and write them for a specific application. By analysing patterns of car park use, the Addenbrooke’s team has been able to identify those who are essential users and give them priority parking.
To make the best use of the limited spaces available, the hospital has also allocated automatic entry to certain car parks rather than others, depending on the timing of staff shifts. This keeps congestion to a minimum.
All access rights and privileges are controlled from the central ESi software. Rather than making a payment at one of the 30 barrier systems dotted around the campus, fees are deducted from the employee’s card after each use. There are 24 staff proximity sensors for car parking, each of which deducts parking charges from the electronic purse held on the access cards.
Regardless of seniority, everyone working at the hospital must carry their card at all times. A policy that ensures Addenbrooke’s is one hospital where the chances of seeing a bogus doctor on the premises are all but eliminated.
Phil Robson is senior project manager at Public Access Terminals (PAT)
Enjoy the latest fire and security news, updates and expert opinions sent straight to your inbox with IFSEC Insider's essential weekly newsletters. Subscribe today to make sure you're never left behind by the fast-evolving industry landscape.
Sign up now!
