Healthcare Needs to Focus on a Centralized, Unified Approach to Physical Security

Healthcare centers are some of the most important facilities in the world.

They house patients who are being treated for serious illness and are receiving life-saving surgery. Their buildings also contain expensive, state-of-the-art technology and protect sensitive and important personal data.

It’s no surprise that these facilities are often major targets for serious physical breaches.

PBS NewsHour reports that "health care workers are five times as likely to experience workplace violence as other workers.” They cite statistics from the National Nurses United 2022 survey that found 40 percent of nurses said they’ve witnessed an increase in violent incidents.

In a new piece for HealthTech, Jonathan Karl, director of healthcare sales at CDW, and Josh Peacock, healthcare strategist for CDW, explain that health systems need to update their physical security protocols to address rising, ever more complicated threats.

They write that healthcare companies need to take a “more holistic approach.” This means making way for instituting centralized command centers.

Crafting a more centralized approach to security

“As care delivery becomes more encompassing of a patient’s well-being, an organization’s security approach should also become more integrated and provide visibility into all the parts that make it whole,” they write.

They point to HonorHealth — located in Scottsdale, Arizona — as one example. They said the organization supports “a network operations center,” which gives the security team the opportunity to stay on top of a wide range of surveillance cameras that proliferate through the system’s various buildings.

Once an issue comes up, the team can respond swiftly in real time.

While this is important, Peacock and Karl write that the next step is to “incorporate more predictive analytics into the video surveillance system to better support security staff.”

A common theme in any discussion around devising modern physical security strategies involves the pressing reality that cloud-connected, state-of-the-art devices must be implemented. From there, all staff must be properly trained and vetted.

Giving security staff more control

“A healthcare organization with multiple facilities or a sprawling campus may have disparate security teams and localized data feeds for cameras. A unified system would offer a better overview and improve coordination and response to incidents. This is especially an issue for ambulatory locations that may not have 24/7 coverage,” Karl and Peacock add.

They write that a centralized command center will give a healthcare company improved visibility and control — especially in the case of sprawling campuses that involve multiple buildings.

Having a central nucleus around which the rest of the security apparatus orbits means the team can efficiently connect with emergency services and police if the need arises.

The AI future

Finally, the two experts point to how artificial intelligence (AI) will only continue to complicate and improve healthcare security.

“The growth of artificial intelligence-powered tools in healthcare works as both a threat to security and an opportunity to improve defenses and cover skill gaps,” they write. “A central team can leverage AI to monitor data for tracking users and access that falls outside of an organization’s governance or baseline expectations.”