How Your Healthcare Facility Can Improve Asset, Employee, and Operations Management Using Key Control
Hospital and healthcare campuses use hundreds or even thousands of physical keys in their facilities. These keys control access to a variety of valuable assets including medical equipment, medications, personnel belongings, vehicles, patients and more. Therefore, keys are assets that require proper security and protection.
Morse Watchmans KeyWatcher Touch software with TrueTouch™ ensures that physical keys can only be accessed by those with the appropriate permissions. Using KeyWatcher Touch, campus security and facility administrators can access data to assign users, track key usage, locate keys, schedule automatic reports, and set up alerts when a key is late. These capabilities provide new benefits to healthcare campuses, including:
1. Improved asset management
All hospitals are subject to theft, physical violence, medical malpractice, cybersecurity and compliance breaches. Typically, assets are stored behind locked doors, hence the need for physical keys. But keys can also be easily stolen, and even authorized personnel can misuse permissions, again leaving assets at risk. The problem then arises, how do you know who accessed these assets and when?
The KeyWatcher Touch prevents risk by speeding up the management of all physical keys on a healthcare campus. Not only are keys stored in a secure location for access restricted to those with the appropriate permissions, but campus administrators can access key control system data to determine which keys are issued, who owns them, and when they should. be returned.
2. Increased efficiency
There are inefficiencies associated with accessing traditional physical keys that hospital administrators need to consider. Healthcare campuses are large and key management is often centralized, making key retrieval and return time-consuming for staff. Likewise, if a key is required by two staff members at the same time, there is no way for the waiting staff member to know where the key is, who has it, and when it will return.
The KeyWatcher Touch system solves key access inefficiencies with a variety of targeted modules, software and accessories. Modular and expandable, KeyWatcher Touch can be installed in multiple locations on campus while on the same network, meaning employees can pick up a key in one location and drop it off in another. Alerts show and indicate if a key is overdue or missing, and auditable key tracking makes lost or stolen keys obsolete.
3. Risk Mitigation for Fleet Vehicles
Healthcare fleets include ambulances, patient transport vehicles and other emergency vehicles. These vehicles are a valuable investment and operate in a fast-paced environment where theft and loss of keys are a concern. Drivers must also be able to act quickly and access keys at all times. When keys to a fleet vehicle are lost or stolen, the costs of replacing keys, reprogramming an ignition system, or recovering a stolen vehicle are significant. Healthcare fleets also require managing service issues, turnover, optimization, and vehicle utilization.
Based on KeyWatcher Touch key monitoring technology, KeyWatcher Fleet offers key monitoring and fleet management software in one system. Fleet KeyWatcher ensures that only vehicle drivers can access fleet keys, especially when all drivers are offsite for work. With real-time updates, administrators will always know where all vehicle keys and owners are. Additionally, Morse Watchmans Smarts™ software for the KeyWatcher fleet allows configuration of fleets based on lowest mileage, most fuels, priority, first in/first out and creation of fleet policies personalized.
With staff, patients, visitors, vendors and students moving around a healthcare campus every day, it is important that physical keys are not lost or stolen in the process. KeyWatcher products can be integrated with other access control systems and are industry favorites among security professionals worldwide, helping to minimize risk and improve customer experience in hospitals.