How do you control who visits your hospital?
We get to visit a lot of healthcare organizations and it is interesting to see the different ways that access to the building is controlled.
The main methods seem to be:
- Do nothing. At a lot of healthcare facilities, most of the buildings have no control at all and anyone can simply walk in.
- Wristbands. We often see wristbands printed in sets so that if a child is admitted to the hospital, the parents get their own, printed at the same time.
- ID Cards. Several hospitals that we work with print a Photo ID card for visitors.
- Labels. The label solution in my photo is a great example of using labels for visitor control. The label that Children’s Hospital attaches to a preprinted card is designed to change color after a certain time to show that the time permitted for the visit has expired. (The pink lines appear when the card is expired.)
Of course, even the hospitals that appear to have rather lax visitor control do tighten things up in certain areas – maternity wards for example. I know that one of our local hospitals allows anyone to wander in during the day, but goes into a virtually total lock-down mode at night – as I discovered when I wanted to visit my wife recently.
How important do you consider visitor control of a healthcare facility to be? Does your hospital already have a comprehensive solution in place?
Can Winco ID help? Of course we can supply and support just about any visitor and access control system, whether based on labels, wristbands or ID Badges. Give me a call at 603-598-1553 x237 to learn more (or use the form on our Contact Page).