Honeywell And BAM Techniek Provide Ziekenhuis Amstelland Hospital With A Safe And Secure Environment

Ziekenhuis Amstelland is a general hospital in the Netherlands that provides high quality medical care in a friendly environment and on a small scale, primarily to the residents of the Amstelveen region and to the Jewish community in particular. Following a large-scale new construction project that took place in 2009-2010, and with a major renovation of the old building during 2011, Amstelveen Hospital has transformed itself into a brand new hospital. In conjunction with this comprehensive project, security aspects were re-examined in great detail. 

Even though the security already in place was good, the renovation and the newly built buildings created the need to reassess the entire security system. Additional areas had been added for short-term treatments, day patients and policlinic treatments. The number of operation rooms was expanded and more beds were added for intensive care and heart monitoring, as well as a specially designed acute emergency help area. This resulted not only in a significantly enlarged area that needed to be made secure, but also required security solutions to manage the expansion in the capacity to treat patients and the magnitude of the daily flow of people throughout the hospital. This resulted in the need for an optimized security system to safeguard personnel, patients, medicine supplies and the medical equipment becoming of vital importance.

In designing the new security system, Amstelland Hospital called upon the expertise of BAM Techniek (Region Northwest in Benningbroek) - a Dutch installation firm that through years of good experience has become the preferred security installer for the Amstelland Hospital. "Why we chose BAM Techniek is actually very simple - they give good advice, taking into account future requirements" said Peter Karsman, Head of Facility Operations, Amstelland Hospital.  "As an example, they equipped the entire hospital with an IP infrastructure in 2003, which simplified the implementation of the new IP security solution."

In this large-scale renovation, the primary need was the expansion of the camera system, as well as switching to an integrated IP security solution for inside the buildings and surrounding premises. The requirement was to register incoming traffic and to provide the most cost-effective way of monitoring medical areas, medical storage areas and expensive medical equipment. The importance of having a security surveillance system in place was already acknowledged in 2009 when an X-ray monitor valued at €30,000 went missing.

The Solution

For the selection of the right supplier, a tender was issued. "There are a lot of changes in the market, technology moves fast and we wanted to let our customer experience the differences in image quality" said Arjan Kleuver, Project Manager at BAM Techniek. "To do this, IP cameras from different suppliers were tested on location for a few weeks. The primary criteria in the selection of the right supplier were the transition from day to night, but the price-quality ratio also played an important role."

For the test, Honeywell supplied the latest models of the Honeywell EQUIP® IP product range, namely the HD3MDIPX and the HD4MDIPX. These high definition True Day/Night mini-dome network cameras for indoor and outdoor usage are designed to deliver extremely sharp images with minimal bandwidth. "Not long after the trials had started it became clear that the Honeywell cameras were superior in the transition from day to night, delivered crisp high quality images, and exceeded their competition in price-performance ratio" added Karsman.

In addition to the 90 Honeywell cameras, six Honeywell Fusion IV Network Video Recorders (NVRs)were installed with FVMS software. The powerful Fusion IV has the capacity to support up to 32 IP cameras and when combined, multiple Fusion IV NVRs can support hundreds of cameras, meeting the requirements of large-scale integrated IP systems like the one installed in Amstelland Hospital.

To complete the security system, the decision was taken to install Automatic Number Plate Recognition software (ANPR), which enables monitoring and number plate registration of all cars entering and leaving the building. By automatically logging the entrance time along with the car number plate, potential security risks can be managed with early warning alerts.

The Benefits

By installing the Honeywell high definition True Day/Night cameras for indoor and outdoor usage, ANPR software and Fusion IV NVRs with FVMS, Amstelland Hospital now has a robust integrated IP surveillance solution in place. This complete IP system is rarely seen in Dutch hospitals where analog is often still deployed, despite the obvious advantages that IP offers such as cost savings, ease of installation and maintenance.

For Amstelland Hospital the new IP system brought a significant improvement in efficiency gains. Thanks to the pre-installed motion detection settings, the cameras are only activated to record when motion occurs.  With the video management software, a site map can be preloaded, pinpointing the exact location where the incident is occurring. The Honeywell solution improves safety and enhances the quality of the information provided to security and reception personnel.

In addition, the video management software makes it possible to preset a variety of user rights. This functionality is of crucial importance with regard to the Law for the Protection of Personal Data, and makes it possible to define who has viewer or data recapture rights for the recordings which ultimately are required to protect against illegal use of the images and guarantee the privacy of employees and patients.

Choosing the Honeywell high definition cameras that require minimal bandwidth also enables substantial financial savings. The clear image quality and the problem-free transition from day to night registration ensure the continuity of reliable data collection and a good situational overview at all times.

In the weeks following the installation of the Honeywell IP security solution, the system proved itself by capturing and preventing numerous break-in attempts and in solving a theft.