Tony Babicz, Director of Sales – The Americas at Commend explores how a telehealth approach to medical facilities can aid patients, staff and security teams.
“Healthcare is arguably one of the biggest markets out there from a security perspective,” began Babicz.
Due to the many areas that need to be kept secure, yet the very open spaces that embody healthcare facilities such as hospitals and clinics, the security of these organizations presents a challenge, he explained.
With certain areas needing to be accessible to patients and the requirement for the public to feel welcome and comfortable, security teams at medical centers need to tread a fine line with ensuring that vulnerable areas are protected.
“At Commend, we do our best to bring all the different points of communication within healthcare together as facilities are often on very large campuses,” Babicz continued.
He highlighted that there are many different complexities to consider; for example, multiple buildings where communication systems can be outdoors, indoors or within elevators, which have their own specialized requirements.
With these many disparate systems, it’s therefore important to ensure each is easy to operate and is also interoperable with other systems and the facility itself.
Thinking about the various types of systems that can be deployed at a healthcare facility, Babicz emphasized that traditionally for communication, there is a split between the security side and the healthcare side.
“These communication paths typically were separate but are now starting to meld together,” he said.
“What we have always done at Commend for security is to deploy intercoms but we’ve also expanded into the clinical side of things to advance telehealth.
“One of these focuses has been on patient monitoring, to allow this to be done remotely.”
For example, the company works with alliance partners to provide a solution that includes audio, camera, mobile cart and a virtual care platform making it the eyes, ears and voice that enables virtual care.
“This kind of technology was first looked at as a way to monitor patients that were a fall risk,” Babicz explained.
“That first development was then adapted into telehealth, providing a path for communication with doctors that may be remote. It’s definitely a growing a piece of our business.”
According to Babicz, during the COVID-19 pandemic and since then, there has been a major shortage of staffing for healthcare facilities.
“I think that’s going to continue,” he said.
“A lot of people got burnt out and left the industry, but there’s hope as some are coming back.
“The growth of virtual care is allowing them to feel more secure, so I think this strategy will only continue to grow.”
He added that virtual patient care has additional benefits, such as allowing doctors to be more efficient, as they can remain in one place without having to visit each patient’s room, saving on travel time.
Another key aspect that Babicz highlighted was computer vision.
He commented that the introduction of this technology means surveillance cameras are able to recognize situations or incidents without having human eyes on the scene.
This increases patient and staff safety because it means that there is a capability to detect what might be happening in a way that hasn’t been possible before.
It also means that other issues can be resolved before they become a problem.
“I think that’s where the whole industry is headed from a technology standpoint,” Babicz revealed.
Speaking specifically about Commend’s work in healthcare, Babicz emphasized that telehealth is an important focus at the moment.
“We launched a series of touchscreen stations that are really adaptable,” he said. “It’s a piece of software that we can do whatever we want with as it’s so adaptable.”
Babicz continued that this platform can include multidirectional video and while it can be used for outside purposes, it can also be tailored for use in healthcare environments.
He explained that if the station is placed at a door, it can be adapted around the operational needs of the customer.
As an example, if it’s placed on a nursing floor, during normal business hours it might display a message on the screen, such as a policy for that specific floor: “visiting hours are from nine to five, please press the button”.
The call would then go to the nursing station for staff to answer.
“After hours, however, the message might change to say that visiting hours are over and that people cannot enter the facility,” Babicz said.
“That visual piece of signage can also be used for emergencies. Let’s say there was an infant abduction, active shooter, fire or other situation, then the system can be changed to allow for different messaging.
“I think that is a powerful thing, especially from a security focus and we weren’t able to do this four or five years ago.”
One example of the company’s technology in action that Babicz highlighted was a hospital that needed a way to control sound.
“We had a few hospitals that requested something similar. In a lot of their rooms, doctors and surgeons would come in and play music.
They were coming in and plugging into, for example, a speaker.
The hospitals realized very quickly that if for some reason there was an incident, there was no way for anybody to externally turn off that sound.”
Babicz explained that this meant no one could hear each other.
This led Commend to look at pairing its technology to fit within the environment so that an additional control is not necessarily in the room, but with the assistants who are sitting outside the room.
“It’s a case that has helped save lives,” he said.
“They’re able to control the volume of the music on both sides and interrupt the music by pushing a button, so it’s not necessarily up to the doctor or nurse to stop it.”
Babicz concluded that the most important aspect is to consider the operational workflow and how to affect that environment so that everybody remains safe and within protocol.
Babicz revealed that the company’s goal is to continue growing in the healthcare industry, but particularly from a patient experience perspective.
He emphasized that it’s important to consider not only security when designing new solutions, but also patients, to improve their experience when entering a building and for wayfinding.
“One of the big things that we’ve worked on over the last couple of years is what we call a conversational artificial intelligence (AI),” he said.
“So, you can ask questions and the platform would respond. It can also be trained to answer for a specific environment.”
He highlighted that one of the benefits of this is that a conversational AI can instruct a person on where they might need to go, based upon the location they’re currently in and also give them information that a human wouldn’t necessarily have to get involved in.
“Being able to assist somebody without having to have a staff member there frees up time, allowing staff to focus on more high value tasks,” he said.
“We’re looking at developing that knowledge for increased remote assistance, to reduce the need for a doctor, nurse or security guard to answer questions that can logically be answered by a piece of technology.”
“I’ve been with Commend for about 12 years now and I oversee all of the sales activities and business development for North and South America,” Babicz said.
With a team of nine people in the US, a team in Canada and a recently hired employee who is the first person based in Latin America for Commend, Babicz reveals that his team is growing and embodies the company’s strategic approach.
This article was originally published in the Special February Influencers Edition of Security Journal Americas. To read your FREE digital edition, click here.