Medical Offices Across the U.S. Switch to High-Security Keyless Locks
Tougher new rules are forcing doctor’s offices, family health clinics, and hospitals to re-evaluate how they store hard-copy patient files and records. A new industry offering cutting edge keyless locks for medical facilities has sprung up to help meet the challenge.
Tougher new rules are forcing doctor’s offices, family health clinics, and hospitals to re-evaluate how they store hard-copy patient files and records. A new industry offering cutting edge keyless locks for medical facilities has sprung up to help meet the challenge.
Local clinics, family doctor offices, and medical facilities are backing away from the common practice of using a lock and key to secure important information. For decades, the office administrator or staff member in charge of placing patient files in the record storage room, has had to deal with the inconvenience of remembering to lock the door behind them.
While it seems on the surface to be a simple undertaking, ask the thousands of personnel in these offices who can attest to how many times these doors get left unlocked. It’s simply easier to leave the door propped open then to drop everything and go searching for the key. We’ve all been there. You’re multi-tasking, and someone piles yet another task on you. You know it’s not safe to leave the door ajar, but heck you’ve seen others do it, and it’s not far from your desk anyway.
Don’t get us wrong, we are not implicating the staff members here. Anyone who’s been to a healthcare facility knows how hard these folks work. The bone we are picking is with the archaic security setup.
Even regulatory authorities in the healthcare industry are now starting to see the problems, and have become stricter in enforcing new security measures to combat this growing concern.
According to the HIPAA Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act, specific physical security measures are to be taken to protect access points from unauthorized intrusion and subsequent breach of data.
In fact, as criticism of how the medical community handles its electronic medical records has reached high-decibel, addressing physical security has been brought even more to the forefront.
Remarkably technology has surfaced to mitigate the dilemma.
New keyless door locks are now on the market for hospitals and medical offices. Basic mechanical cipher locks have been in use for some time at many of these facilities, however they simply can’t do what’s needed for the aforementioned situations. With multiple staff needing access, and with management instructed by governing regulators to track who and when is entering the sensitive areas, a more robust electronic lock is required.
By deploying a keyless lock, the probability of doors being locked increases exponentially. When there is no ring of keys to keep track of, there is no reason to prop or leave a door open.
Several flagship door hardware manufacturers produce the new stand-alone access control keyless locks. The locks can be purchased on the web for a fraction of the cost of wired online systems. About the only thing office personnel can’t do with this new hardware is a global-lockdown. However, there are new remote wireless locking devices which may be paired with a new keyless lock to accomplish this.
Transitioning to the new security is more or less a function of time. It can take 15-20 minutes to remove old locks, and then 20-30 minutes to install the new ones. It’s nothing a handyman or handywoman can’t handle. For that matter anyone familiar with a drill or screwdriver can put them in.
Programming is not complicated, however the medical office may be able to find a company to take care of this. All the office would need to do is put the keyless lock on the door, and begin using it. The alternative of doing nothing can lead to financial pain.
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