Hospitals and healthcare facilities have the tall order of managing guests, as well as screening for unwanted visitors and maintaining proper security procedures.

Hospitals and healthcare facilities need to professionally manage guests entering the lobby, account for who is entering the facility, and screen for unwanted visitors. Because healthcare facilities typically have high numbers of visitors, an appropriate visitor system has to accommodate rapid guest check-ins, and also be unobtrusive for guests in the process.

Integration of visitor management with other hospital systems also can be an important consideration. These hospital systems include:

• HL7 for real-time patient feeds: Lobby attendants are able to view real-time patient admissions and discharges, allowing them to match the patient that the visitor is seeing.
• Status Blue: Includes the list of the approved vendors for the healthcare facility so that the lobby attendant will know whether an arriving vendor has been pre-approved by the facility.
• Access Control Integration: Contractors, temporary staff and volunteers can be provided with access to locked doors controlled by the facility’s access control system, allowing individuals to enter areas without being escorted by an employee.

Many hospitals guard against unwanted visitors by using their visitor management system to alert them to individuals on their internal “watch list” or against each state’s sex offender database. Such a feature automatically alerts lobby attendants to any visitor on the list within seconds of check-in.

Other visitor management features for hospitals include alerts such as maximum visitor alerts and specific patient monitoring alerts.

In addition to tailored alerts, hospitals and healthcare facilities also may need durable visitor badges that include barcodes to allow frequent visitors to check in to the building with a single swipe of their badge after the first visit. HID Global’s EasyLobby Secure Visitor Management (SVM) has the above features and many others specifically designed to meet the unique needs of hospitals and healthcare facilities.