Unified Touch-Free Security

After careful consideration, ICT's Protege GX platform was chosen to deliver unified access control, intruder detection and building automation for Landspítali. Eyþór Örn Eyjólfsson, Product Manager at Securitas commented “ICT is user-friendly and provides a great experience for the end user. The powerful features and integrations make it a perfect choice for a job like this.”

After a successful test in the emergency department, the ICT Protege GX system was deployed across the entire hospital leading to around 1,000 doors and 10,000 users currently managed by a central Protege GX server network.

The environment provided by a unified ICT solution brings alarms, access, and automation together in one central interface. Landspítali has seen cost-savings from increased building efficiencies by automating functions such as light controls, and arming/disarming and opening/closing of areas.

These improvements also have benefits for the people tasked with looking after the day-to-day security at the hospital. Landspítali's guard patrol now receive alarms or events directly to mobile phones or tablets, significantly lowering their response time. Projects Manager at Landspítali, Andri Valur Gunnarsson says, “it's been so helpful for them, the guards are really happy with it.” And with the ability to reset alarms, or arm/disarm areas remotely from handheld devices, it gives them more flexibility to react.

Managing 10,000 active users presented challenges when dealing with access level changes, new users, or former employees. By connecting the HR database with Protege GX using ICT's SOAP Web Service, when an employee is entered into one system it automatically updates in the other, providing a cohesive solution to control user access. This is particularly useful when a staff member forgets to return a credential at the end of their employment – once they are removed from the HR database, the card will no longer grant access.

For staff, the most noticeable improvement is that instead of juggling multiple keys, they now only need one card for access. “The hospital policy is to have an environment without physical keys, ICT is a perfect option in that regard,” says Gunnarsson. This single credential gives access to any authorized areas, including doors, elevators, even medicine cabinets – which are all controlled by assigned access levels in Protege GX. It even allows them to pay for meals in the cafeteria from a single card.

Staff and patient safety is also enhanced by the integration of the hospital elevators. Staff present their access credential in the elevator to gain access only to those floors they are authorized for. There are also parts of the hospital that require higher levels of security. Using video doorbells, staff can check authorization and grant access to these areas from their desktop screens, sending a signal to the ICT controller to open the requested door.

A major consideration for the hospital was how to increase the health and comfort of staff by reducing the surfaces that they need to touch. This was achieved by the widespread introduction of automatic door openers. When an authorized credential is presented, the system sends a signal to automatically open the door. This has proved particularly useful during the Covid-19 pandemic, when increased hygiene measures were called for.

Although not all doors are fitted with automatic openers yet, the aim is to continue installation of these throughout the hospital, and in the new building currently under construction to make it fully touch-free. There is also testing underway to bring mobile credentials and video integration into the Protege GX ecosystem, as part of a continuous drive for improvement.