Saint Vincent Hospital, a leading healthcare provider in Central Massachusetts, has enhanced patient and staff safety by upgrading its access control and video surveillance technology across its facility.
Located in the heart of Worcester, Ma, Saint Vincent Hospital’s award-winning facilities have been serving the needs of the Central Massachusetts community since 1893. The health and safety of patients, visitors, and staff is a top priority for Saint Vincent, and the facility is proud to be one of the first hospitals in Massachusetts to achieve compliance with the new patient health and safety law, Laura’s Law.
The hospital features a range of specialties—from robotic surgery and neonatal services to oncology and cardiology care. In partnership with Axis Communications and Village Security, a full-service security firm, the state-of-the-art medical facility has integrated innovative technology that monitors every part of the hospital’s nearly 300-bed facility. The resulting solution provides real-time information that improves emergency response times and helps to save more lives. Laura’s Law was enacted by the State of Massachusetts in 2021 to ensure hospitals make it easier for people to find help in an emergency.
“Saint Vincent Hospital is one of the first hospitals in Massachusetts to fully comply with Laura’s Law, and our partnership with Axis and Village Security enables us to meet the highest standards of safety,” said Darrell Boling, market director of facilities and support services at Saint Vincent Hospital. “Laura’s Law regulates standards for lighting and signage at emergency department access points. It requires 24-hour surveillance with instant playback capabilities including two-way audio-video intercoms connected to a live operator. With better cameras, enhanced signage, and video intercoms, we’re able to react faster to patient and staff emergencies, and in doing so, we save more lives.”
To comply with Laura’s Law, Saint Vincent Hospital deployed emergency call boxes embedded with 2N IP Verso security intercoms at all public entrances along with improved lighting and enhanced signage. The law also mandates duress alarms at the main entrances, so the call boxes were integrated with assistive listening technology to improve accessibility for the hearing impaired.
“In addition to employing a new video intercom system, the implementation of Laura’s Law provided Saint Vincent with an opportunity to modernise its security infrastructure by replacing its outdated analogue cameras with high-resolution Axis IP cameras. Village Security installed over one hundred Axis dome, panoramic, and multi-directional cameras throughout the premises, all seamlessly integrated and monitored through Axis Camera Station video management software.
Village worked with the local Axis regional sales manager to design the project using Axis Site Designer, a tool that helps optimise camera placement and factor storage and bandwidth usage,” explains Matt Kjin, segment development manager, Axis Communications.
The new system amplifies safety measures, which is especially important during the holiday season – a time when increased hospital and emergency visits are inevitable. Looking beyond the holiday period, Saint Vincent Hospital will benefit from access to a cutting-edge, scalable system allowing for the easy integration of new solutions to ensure they continue to offer the highest level of standards and compliance for patient, visitor and staff safety.
