Camera Health Monitoring in Healthcare

There is the part of hospitals that we all get to see, the lobbies, the hospital rooms, the nurses’ stations. There are, however, entire sections of hospitals that few of us ever do get to see. One of those places being the security offices.

When you go to a hospital, there is a certain sense of security, one of the reasons for that is the complex security protocols happening behind the scenes. So seamlessly, that few ever really notice.

To help support the continued security work in the healthcare field, Ai-RGUS recently attended the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety (IAHSS) conference in Reno, Nevada. 

As repeat attendees, seeing the familiar faces of the important men and women who work in the healthcare security and safety industry was encouraging! Hearing about the ever-changing landscape of this field was a great reminder of the important piece that Ai-RGUS is playing within healthcare.

The trends in healthcare relating to safety and security are astounding. 7 out of 10 physicians have said that violence in the emergency departments is increasing [1]. The American Nurses Association found that 13% of days out of work was due to workplace violence. Ultimately, exposure to these situations increases depression, anxiety, and emotional stress for employees. This results in HCW turnover, and turnover of a registered nurse costs hospitals between $5.2M to $8.1M. [2]

With these rising trends within the hospitals. Patients are increasingly researching a hospital's reputation carefully before choosing a provider. This puts increased burden on risk management responsibilities.

One of the ways that hospitals can manage risk is through camera usages. Cameras will often be placed in the perimeter, waiting rooms, front desks, medical storage, and parking lots (among many other places). 

With so much at stake, and this large number of cameras in play, the importance of that footage is critical. 

The average 800 bed hospital has somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 cameras monitoring everything from lobbies and parking lots to dispensaries and restricted areas. [3] Assuming a 3 minute per camera time for manual image verification (including necessary break time and pauses), it would take one hour to review 20 cameras. Or 150 hours for 3,000 cameras. To review all this footage only once. 

This also doesn’t consider checking recording history, whether retention compliance is met, device time correctness, among some of the other metrics that are critical for hospital monitoring. 

Ai-RGUS offers a comprehensive solution that integrates with different camera manufacturers and your ticketing system to provide an automatic, AI based comparison of your current camera view compared to an approved reference image(s) for that camera. Ai-RGUS can also produce auditable reports.

Ai-RGUS automatically checks device and camera liveness, camera recordings, retention compliance, device time correctness among other metrics and presents information in a clear, exportable, and searchable format. The goal is for time to be spent smartly and efficiently. Keeping our hospitals safe, and ensuring that when footage is needed, it will be available.

References

[1] American College of Emergency Physicians

[2] Nursing Solutions, Inc

[3] Hanwha October 14, 2020 / tech topics blog