When Groupe Hospitalier Mutualiste Portes du Sud looked to modernise door security, their focus was clear: A battery-powered rather than wired solution was required to meet the access control challenges of a hospital.
Like any healthcare setting, Portes du Sud must ensure their premises are an open, welcoming space for the public while simultaneously keeping medicines, staff, equipment and sensitive data secure. Every user group — from doctors, nurses, patients and their visitors to a host of temporary and contract workers — needs access rights tailored to their precise demands and schedule.
A wire-free electronic solution offers a number of concrete advantages in future-proofing hospital access control and meeting these challenges. It provides managers with the flexibility to tailor rights to a whole team or just one person — and change or cancel those access permissions anytime. They can audit access for faster incident investigation.
While helping phase out expensive metal keys, wireless devices also offer seamless compatibility with existing mortise locks and easy, cost-effective installation without cables. And because they are powered by standard batteries, any future outages do not impact hospital security.
Portes du Sud consulted three specialist providers and, according to Assa Abloy, each one recommended the same system, Smartair. Hospital doors are now locked securely with battery-powered, wireless escutcheons: “One Smartair escutcheon on its own replaces a wired reader, an electrical connection and a magnetic lock. And it is just as safe,” says Frédéric Steenhoute at Groupe Hospitalier Mutualiste Portes du Sud.
All credentials, door devices and users are managed easily from Smartair’s TS1000 software. When someone loses their badge, managers cancel it with a couple of clicks, which saves the money and time which would be wasted changing locks in a mechanical system. If property goes missing, it’s easy to trace who went where and when, which keeps equipment and personal belongings safer.
And with no mechanical keys to order — badges are fast and cost-efficient to print from their own printer — the hospital saves money, too.
As well as protecting premises with a future-proofed solution, managers value the autonomy that wireless access control gives them. On any date, at any time of day or night, the ease of use and maintenance of a wire-free system makes life simpler for hospital technicians.
Hospital managers enjoy everyday benefits in the management of staff and temporary contractors. “The fact we can assign rights to a whole team, and also specific rights to two or three people at the same time, is very useful,” adds Steenhoute.
Smartair also has several options for extending the reach or functionality of access control in the future. The hospital can add escutcheons with antibacterial coating, for example. Another potential future option, Smartair’s Openow mobile app enables management and door unlocking by smartphone.
Smartair devices can be moved anytime, to adjust or reconfigure door coverage. Web management can handle access for new buildings or any Group expansion. Choosing Smartair enables hospital managers to do all this — as well as install and maintain the system — in-house, which saves even more time and money. “Wireless solutions allow us to be autonomous,” says Steenhoute. “It is very easy to remove an escutcheon from one door and to install it on another door; all our technicians can do it.”
