5 Ways Video Analytics Creates Comprehensive Safety for Hospitals

A Holistic Solution for Modern Healthcare

In the fast-paced and demanding hospital environment, maintaining a secure and safe atmosphere is of paramount importance. To address their diverse challenges, hospitals are increasingly turning to the strategic deployment of security cameras and video analytics. These analytics-powered surveillance systems offer numerous benefits, including patient and staff safety, monitoring for and deterring drug diversion, preventing infant abduction, responding to patient elopement, and even helping increase regulatory compliance. By harnessing the power of their security investments, hospitals can create a comprehensive framework that promotes a secure environment, enables effective incident management, and safeguards the well-being of patients, visitors, and healthcare professionals alike.

Take a look at the 5 ways video analytics creates comprehensive safety and security for hospitals:

1. Increasing patient and staff safety
   High-risk areas within hospitals, such as psychiatric and memory care units, emergency departments, or isolated corridors, require close monitoring to ensure the safety of patients and staff. Security cameras strategically placed in these areas can provide continuous surveillance and real-time alerting for specific events when paired with video analytics. By monitoring high-risk areas, security personnel and medical staff can quickly respond to any signs of aggression, self-harm, unusual behavior, or unauthorized entry and exit to ensure the safety and well-being of patients and staff.
2. Monitoring for and deterring drug diversion
   The safe management of prescription drugs is a paramount concern for hospitals. To support authorized distribution and deter drug diversion, security cameras are often installed in medication storage rooms, pharmacies, or other areas where medications are stored. While surveillance is key, hospitals can make their video searchable, actionable, and quantifiable to better monitor these spaces, track activity, and even visualize interactions with medication cabinets or shelves. This visual data empowers hospitals to take immediate action on alerts for suspicious behaviors or unauthorized access to medication storage areas, or evaluate historic, drug diversion patterns to make data driven decisions to enhance access and security protocols.
3. Preventing infant abduction
   While infant abduction is a rare occurrence, it is a serious concern for hospitals and healthcare facilities. In nurseries and neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), video analytics enables hospitals to trigger alerts when individuals enter and exit specific departments. By monitoring facility access and tracking the movement of staff, visitors, and patients, suspicious or unauthorized individuals can be identified promptly to prevent serious crimes like infant abduction.
4. Averting patient elopement: Sometimes, a patient who is deemed too ill or impaired to make reasoned decisions, or who is incapable of adequately protecting themself, departs, or elopes, from a hospital or healthcare facility. Because elopement may present an imminent threat to a patient’s health and safety, hospitals can leverage video analytics to receive real-time notifications when an at-risk patient leaves a designed area. Furthermore, video analytics can quickly process surveillance video so hospital personnel can easily determine the patient’s last known location and track their movement across multiple cameras in the network. If law enforcement intervention is necessary, they can also benefit from the description details provided by advanced search and filtering classifications. Once an incident is resolved, video analytics can support post-incident review with detailed and accurate data to build a case file and identify infrastructure vulnerabilities to drive improvements for preventing future elopement.
5. Enhancing regulatory compliance
   Patient privacy is an important part of the healthcare system, and hospitals go to great lengths to ensure this right. Video analytics can help hospitals comply with HIPAA and other patient privacy regulations by improving monitoring of areas where protected health information (PHI) is stored or accessed. By incorporating video analytics into their overall security infrastructure, healthcare facilities can better meet regulations set forth by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to promote patient safety, prevent unauthorized access, enhance emergency preparedness, and provide valuable documentation for incident investigations.

Exceptional Patient Care

Video surveillance and analytics enable hospitals to create comprehensive, cross departmental safety and security measures. With their ability to monitor high-risk areas, promptly respond to emergencies, deter drug diversion, enhance regulatory compliance, and more, a hospital’s surveillance investments play a crucial role in mitigating risks and ensuring a secure environment when enhanced with advanced video analytics technology. Hospitals are held to high standards across their complex eco system and need comprehensive support to ensure safety and security. Video analytics is the tool healthcare facilities need to make exceptional patient care a reality.

Interested in learning how video analytics can impact your hospital or healthcare center? Sign up for a personalized demo to see the BriefCam Video Analytics Platform in action on your unique video. Schedule a Demo