By Healthcare Facilities Today

Technology is a game changer in managing vendor and visitor access to health care facilities, according to a recent survey reported by Health Facilities Management magazine. The question, the article said, is how far organizations will take it to track the movements of people inside their doors.

More than 500 organizations — nearly three-fourths of respondents to the 2013 Health Facilities Management/Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management/American Society for Healthcare Engineering Vendor and Visitor Access Control Survey — said they use a vendor management system to screen, badge and track every vendor. And 38 percent of respondents said they use a visitor management system to screen, badge and track every visitor.

Sixty-nine percent said they have an integrated security system such as video surveillance, access control, alarms and intrusion detection. And 12 percent said they capture video of visitors at check-in.

While vendor management systems have been around for about eight years, only in the past few years have they been widely adopted at health facilities, said Lisa Pryse, president of the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety and president and chief of company police at ODS Healthcare Security Solutions in Richmond, Va.

Read this and an accompanying article on access control.