A hospital is very necessary and has to be dealt with care, with high security and efficient measures taken. While there is a great focus on treatment, staff activities and their roles, another factor that has balanced importance but is not so much taken into account is the visitor management system. Patients and the general public, as well as friends and family, visit a lot of hospitals. Suppliers, contractors, and even the media make several visits to varying hospitals. These people, regardless of their purpose of visit, need to be taken care of in a secure and efficient manner to ensure the safety of everyone in the hospital.
This blog will show you why modern visitor management systems are very important for hospitals to have. We will also discuss the integration of the software with visitor management and multi tenant visitor management systems which will add to the improvements in the safety of the healthcare system. We will also talk about its advantages and suggest one of the best visitor management systems available today, the Scrum System.
The Need for Security in Healthcare Environments
Hospitals are sensitive environments. Patients are often at risk and vulnerable, alongside confidential medical files being stored in the area. Gaining unallowed access to patient zones can pose safety and privacy risks as well as medical tampering. Traditionally, hospitals used manual logbooks to monitor visitors
Though these methodologies are established, they neither facilitate monitoring in real-time, contain a multitude of errors, or are simple to audit.
Installing a robust visitor management system greatly simplifies and secures the registration and deregistration of individuals. It guarantees that only authorized personnel are granted access into designated areas of the hospital and there is a ready copy of who is in the hospital and when at any time.
In what manner a visitor management system strengthens hospital security.
A hospital visitor management system has a number of critical functions.
Identity Verification: The system verifies a visitor’s identity by scanning an identification document or through a pre-registration system. This is a great way of protecting the institution from allowing violent people on the premises.
Badge Printing: Photographic visitor and ID badges with names and expiry times are normally printed. This makes it simple for members of the institution to identify the visitors.
Access Control Integration: More sophisticated systems can be incorporated with other access control systems in order to limit access of some visitors to sensitive areas like ICU’s, maternity wards and operation theaters.
Emergency Response Support: In the case of emergency such as fire or lockdown, visitors log is crucial for first responders to determine all the people within the facility.
By automating these processes, hospitals are able to improve safety without providing any additional inconvenience to the patrons.
Advantages of Visitor Management Software in a Hospital Setting
The application of software for managing visitors at hospitals has more advantages than just improving security:
a. Enhanced Productivity
Keeping a manual log book can take a lot of time leading to congestion at the hospital’s entry points. With the application of software, visitors can be checked-in using kiosks or tablets which streamlines the process, saves time, and improves the experience that patrons have.
b. Live Tracking
Hospital managers as well as security personnel have the ability to keep track of the movements of visitors. In case a visitor overstays the stipulated time or trespasses to a forbidden zone, notifications can be sent out.
c. The Precision of the Information
With the use of digital logs, the issue of mistakes that is prevalent with handwritten records is avoided, and information is stored accurately and safely. This increases the ease of analyzing patterns related to visitors and generating reports.
d. No-contact Check-In
In the Post-COVID era, no-contact check-in has become a necessity. Most modern visitor management systems nowadays offer mobile sign-in and QR code entry to limit contact and uphold sanitary protocols.
e. Compliance with the Policies
Hospitals have to adhere to laws concerning the protection of information as well as health policies. Effective visitor management software solutions can aid in maintaining audit ready logs for data and privacy control.
The Function of Multi-Tenant Visitor Management Systems in Healthcare
Specific hospitals are housed in large structures or complexes that include diagnostic centers, private clinics, and even specialty departments. In such context, a multi tenant visitor management system becomes critical.
Such a system provides:
Centralized Management: Each clinic or department is capable of maintaining its own visitor logs while adding them to a central database.
Tenant-Specific Rules: Policy differences may exist among the clinics in a single building. These types of systems support each tenant’s ability to set up their own check-in rules and permissions.
Shared Resources: The system permits the communal use of check-in kiosks, printers, and waiting areas, thus minimizing hardware expenditure and operational mayhem.
Inter-Department Transfers: Where a visitor requires to move from one department to another, say from a diagnostics lab to an outpatient clinic, the system can facilitate this transfer.
This is particularly important in large hospitals or medical complexes with several health care providers under one roof.
Best rated Visitor Management Systems Features
Not all visitor management systems are created equal. Here are a few of the features that make the best visitor management systems for hospitals.
Pre-Registration Capabilities: Enabling visitors to register online in advance of their arrival helps minimize congestion at entry points.
Photo Capture and ID Scanning: Strengthens security by matching the visitor’s identity with the actual person.
Custom Badge Printing: Eases the staff’s ability to identify and classify visitors as a patient relative, vendor, or emergency contact.
Host Notification: Alerts the relevant hospital personnel about the arrival of their guest.
Real-Time Dashboard: Provides a single view of who is currently on-site, their whereabouts, and length of stay.
Integration with Existing Systems: Integrates with other systems such as the hospital’s information system (HIS), security devices, IoT surveillance cameras, and biometric readers without disrupting hospital operations.
Data Privacy Compliance: Guarantees the hospital does not violate data protection regulations, particularly regarding the visitor information and health declarations, ensuring the privacy of data is maintained.
The Role of Visitor Management in Pandemic Situations
The COVID-19 pandemic heightened the operational challenges that hospitals were already facing with regards to visitor management and access. During these periods of heightened risk to public health, the importance of having a secure visitor management system is even more significant:
Health Declarations: Visitors could be required to submit health screening forms as part of the check in process.
Contact Tracing: Timely and accurate tracing of registered visitors provides the ability to notify individuals believed to have come into contact with infected persons.
Restricting Access: The system implements visitor limits and automatically denies access after those limits are exceeded.
Self Check-In: Allows visitors to register through their phones and have minimal physical interaction.
Having an effective approach in place can help contain the spread of infection and be part of the public health effort.
Case Study: Operation Optimization for a Big Hospital
Let’s take the example of a multi-specialty hospital with over a thousand daily visitors. Prior to having a digital visitor management system, security teams relied on logbooks that were often messy or incomplete. There were rampant cases of people entering restricted areas such as controlled zones which led to disturbances or issues with privacy.
After implementing a multi-tenant visitor management system, the hospital saw:
A 70% reduction in unauthorized entries.
Faster check-in enabling reduction of visitor wait time by 50%.
Higher satisfaction levels among visitors from enhanced experiences.
Streamlined compliance with safety audits and other regulatory checks.
Such outcomes from the real world are a testament to the value that appropriate technology investment can bring to safety and efficiency in a hospital.
Final Thoughts: Opt for Scrum System For Hospital Visitor Management
Modern hospitals are in need of an effective and secure visitors system, unlike the past where it was optional.
Protects patients, maintains operational efficiency, and keeps a hospital compliant with health and safety laws. Whether it is protecting controlled areas or managing thousands of visitors in a day, the appropriate system makes all the difference.
Scrum System is one of the best visitor management systems out there and we recommend it for your hospital. Scrum System healthcare industry specific medicine centers readily permit the use of secure, robust and simple software tailored specifically for the medicine industry. Whether you are a single facility or a large complex requiring a multi tenant visitor management system, Scrum System is a solution that can be tailored to your needs.
Your hospital as well as other medical centers can remain secured and welcoming to patients & visitors with Scrum System Digital check-in, real-time dashboards, ID verification, compliance management, badge printing, and more are some of the features that will earn trust to your center.
Hospital visitor management was made easy with the Scrum System. Securing your hospital has never been simpler.
