SARS and the possibility of a flu pandemic have together made
security - and access to buildings - critical issues for
hospitals.
It's led some of them to look to technology that offers more
reliability than swipe cards.
Enter contact-free card systems.
Two Toronto-area hospitals have switched from a magnetic swipe
card system to Verex smart card readers, with Mifare technology, to
read and write to contact-free smart cards.
Trillium Health Centre and the New Women's College Hospital both
selected Mississauga-based Veridin Systems Canada Inc. to deploy
the system. Veridin integrates security systems for buildings,
using card access, video surveillance and alarm systems.
The smart cards are to be used by hospital employees. The Verex
system was already installed at Trillium but branded under a
different name with a national service provider, according to
Veridin CEO Colin Doe.
For Trillium, it meant a switch from their previous service
provider as a result of addressing a reliability issue.
"The number one issue was the software wasn't communicating
properly with the field panels," said Doe.
What this means to clients, he said, is that whenever they're
updating their software - adding or deleting users, for example -
the information isn't readily available at all times.
"In a facility like Trillium, reliability is very important
because they have to know they can access the system whenever
there's an issue." Doe described magnetic stripe access control as
"an antiquated system. It's really not used any more."
The Mifare system is being used strictly for security at
Trillium, according to Doe.
"Every employee has a Mifare access card, and on that card is
their photo identification, as well as their critical information
that needs to be known at a glance," he said.
The Mifare technology offered the best level of security
available, said John Fodor, manager of security and parking
services, Trillium Health Centre.
"The original system incorporated swipe card technology, and in
terms of maintenance the card readers tended to fail a lot more, so
we wanted to go to a contactless system," said Fodor. "It's more
reliable, and you also have a lot more information that can be
stored on a smart card."
The bit size of the data on the card is so large it would take
"a few thousand years" to break the code, according to Doe. "It's
an encrypted code only readable by the card reader assigned to that
card."
Facilities that are added to the card is provided with access
code numbers so that can't be duplicated anywhere else, he added.
"This makes the cards that much more secure."
The card has credentials built into it to allow or deny
employees access into different areas of the building, depending on
their authority level, said Doe.
"The thinking for the future is that smart cards can incorporate
other features to make the facility a one-card facility for various
uses such as logging on to the computer and paying for parking and
cafeteria items."
The Mifare installation at Trillium took about a year, providing
3,000 employees with new access cards which they received
department by department.
"We had to identify key doors in the facility that everyone
used," Doe said. "We put smart card readers at those doors in
addition to the magnetic stripe readers already in place, which
allowed them to use either, and gradually everyone was photographed
and given their access cards."
Doe said they're in the final stages of completing a similar
project for the New Women's College Hospital, a new project that,
unlike the Trillium installation, doesn't involve addressing other
problems.
"The only issue with them is not everyone will have their access
cards right away because there's 1,500 people and it's hard to get
that many people in one room for their photo badges," he said. "It
has logistical challenges, but so far it's been going well."
The Women's College system was to come online in mid-July.
Ken Ferguson, manager of safety and security services at the New
Women's College Hospital, said the system was selected because of
the ease of use and flexibility of the software.
"In an older facility like ours, where there's a lot of wires,
control cabinets and different things mounted in hub rooms and
electrical closets, we'd run out of space," said Ferguson. "The
brains of the smart card system were more compact. It didn't take
up tons of feet on my wall, and that was a bonus to choosing the
Verex system."
He added that it's also not a proprietary system, a deciding
factor in the selection process.
Lisa Williams (lwilliams@itworldcanada)
is a senior writer with InterGovWorld.com.
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