30 Aug Biometric Access Secures Safety of Referral Centre Staff
BIOMETRIC ACCESS SECURES SAFETY OF REFERRAL CENTRE STAFF
The safety of the 100 Patient Care Advisors employed by the Newcastle-based Connect Health Ltd at their Referral Management Centre has been protected with the installation of ievo biometric fingerprint readers, allowing the facility manager to not only have an instant headcount of personnel numbers and location at any moment but also adding to the security of sensitive patient data.
Connect Health has grown from a single private physiotherapy clinic established in 1989 to now being the largest provider of community musculoskeletal (MSK) physiotherapy services in the UK. The company employ some 150 clinical experts in MSK and occupational physiotherapy with around half of these based in the 8,000 sq ft Head Office and the remainder working out of GP practices, leisure centres, hospitals and private workplaces.
The company moved into their centre, on Newcastle’s Quorum Business Park in April 2015 and quickly realised that the business, which includes a large call centre, open to staff who work different hours across a 12hr a day, required a failsafe security system to both ensure staff safety and comply with Fire Regulations which require an accurate count of personnel on the premises.
Andrew Walton, Executive Chair of Connect, explained, “We now deal with over 250,000 referrals per year and treat some 3million people annually. The growth of the company required the move last year into the new centre where different teams of Patient Care Advisors and support staff tended to work different hours. Without a line of sight into all areas, it would have been impossible to ensure the building was cleared in case of fire, and we looked very carefully at available systems which as well as biometric readers, included numeric pads, key fobs and swipe cards. Each of these, however, came with inherent problems of being able to be bypassed whilst the fingerprint readers presented an ideal solution. The ievo readers were particularly impressive and very easy to integrate into our security system – they were also manufactured locally!”
“We’ve been delighted with their performance since installation and the whole process has exceeded our expectations. With access to sensitive patient data, we are also shortly seeking accreditation to ISO 27001 for our Information Security Management System (ISMS) and the integration of the ievo fingerprint readers gives us a good start in demonstrating the importance we place on our data security.”
For more information about ISO 27001 visit www.iso.org and to make an appointment to find out how ievo Ltd can help, please contact us.