In recent years, there has been a significant rise in workplace violence in healthcare in the U.S. Healthcare workers, including nurses, doctors, and support staff, are experiencing more frequent and severe incidents of physical and verbal assault. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, healthcare and social assistance workers suffered 73% of all nonfatal workplace assaults in 2018. The situation is particularly dire for nurses, who are the most likely healthcare workers to experience workplace violence. This issue is not only a threat to the safety and well-being of healthcare workers but also affects patient care and outcomes. Healthcare organizations must take steps to prevent workplace violence, including providing training and resources, implementing security measures and promoting a culture of safety.

Convergint has partnered with Avigilon to provide innovative solutions to help combat security risks within healthcare facilities.

Avigilon Solutions for Workplace Violence Prevention

Concealed Weapon Detection

Concealed Weapons Detection (CWD) helps to proactively keep people and assets safe by using advanced sensors and artificial intelligence to detect a wide range of concealed weapons and threats. It is the world’s first and only touchless security screening solution that is conducive to supporting post-pandemic security screening requirements. This advanced solution operates up to ten times faster and far more effective than traditional screening methods while providing a touchless experience.

Body-worn cameras

Motorola Solutions body-worn cameras are designed to extend healthcare facilities’ current video security program by providing live, first-person perspective video and audio from confrontation incidents between staff, patients and visitors. This is useful for Code Grey incidents allowing responders to improve response safety, increase incident recording quality, reduce complaints through deterrence and reduce liability.

Avigilon Unity Access

Avigilon Unity Access is a physical access control system designed to protect people, property, and assets. This advanced solution helps restrict access to designated wings, equipment rooms, and medication storage. Unified with Avigilon Unity Video, Unity Access allows you to review related video alongside access control data so you can verify alarms and respond faster. Additional features include:

  • Identity management
  • Alarm management
  • Remote door lock/unlocking with maps
  • Built-in templates
  • Replication & hot standby auto failover
  • Unity Access Verify virtual stations

Facial recognition

Avigilon’s AI-powered facial recognition technology helps to accelerate response times by quickly identifying people of interest from secure watch lists that are managed by authorized users at organizations. The technology can be used to identify and track individuals who may pose a risk to patients or staff, such as known criminals or disgruntled former employees. This technology offers the context to make better-informed decisions that empower healthcare facilities to respond to events proactively. When applied correctly, AI is an incredibly powerful tool that can be used to increase the effectiveness of physical security systems, deliver on business outcomes, and improve safety. People of interest can be identified based on one or more secure watch lists managed by authorized users in the organization. Users can populate and manage multiple watch lists by either adding faces from Appearance Search, uploading reference images, or finding appearances of the person through recorded video.

Control Center

Hospitals install cameras that are traditionally used for investigative purposes; most do not use them proactively. To improve the safety and security of hospitals, the Avigilon camera system uses analytics to make a security department more efficient and effective by preventing incidents before they occur as opposed to responding to them after they have happened while providing better situational awareness.

As mentioned earlier, current cameras are primarily used in a reactionary and investigative setting. You turn to the cameras after an event has taken place and rebuild the scene to understand the who, what, when, where, why, and how. This process takes time, manpower, and the involvement of many staff to accomplish, and can take hours if not days to investigate. With the Avigilon technology, cameras are used to be more proactive and prevent most unwanted events from occurring. When incidents occur, the investigative tools within the Avigilon software, as well as the quality of the cameras, will provide exponential operational efficiencies.

Focus of attention (FOA)

The Focus of Attention interface in Avigilon Unity allows you to group your cameras by location (areas) within healthcare facilities giving the team situational awareness of activity levels without having to monitor multiple screens of camera feeds. One team member can oversee all the cameras by monitoring the group of “honeycombs”, which are representing cameras broken up by area.  As analytic alarms come in, the video of the incident automatically pulls up on the screen allowing the dispatcher to see the event that caused the alarm and determine the appropriate action.

Appearance search

Avigilon Appearance Search technology is a sophisticated deep learning AI search engine for video. It sorts through hours of video with ease, to quickly locate a specific person or vehicle of interest by entering physical descriptions, uploading a photo, or finding an example within recorded video. Appearance Search can improve incident response time and enhance forensic investigations by helping operators compile robust video evidence, create a powerful narrative of events, and reveal a vehicle or individual’s route or last-known location.

Convergint and Avigilon

Convergint and Avigilon have strategically partnered to help healthcare enhance physical security. These solutions can greatly increase functionality, visibility, and reduce overall reputational risk. To learn more about the technologies discussed, contact an expert today.

Effective security and safety is a multi-layered approach involving people, processes, and technologies. Convergint-provided products and services are only one part of this multi-layered approach, will not detect or prevent all threats or solve every risk, and should not be your sole method of security or safety. Please see the “IMPORTANT PRODUCT SAFETY AND SERVICE INFORMATION” documentation, available at convergint.com/terms, prior to using a Convergint-installed system.

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