Physical security is mission-critical for hospitals, and its importance is only increasing in light of the threats they face. That makes it particularly worrying when their physical security devices have downtime.

Connected devices such as IP cameras and smart access control systems play a central role in keeping hospitals safe. When those devices have downtime, they cannot be counted on to provide the security that hospitals need. That can leave hospitals exposed to fines, lawsuits, reputational damage, and other serious risks. It can also compromise the safety of their patients, employees, and visitors.

Worse yet, it’s common for this downtime to go on for an extended period of time before the affected hospital even discovers the problem. And once the problem is discovered, resolving it takes work – resulting in even more device downtime.

How serious are the physical security concerns facing hospitals, how does device downtime heighten those risks, and why is that downtime such a common problem? This blog post will answer all three of those fundamental questions.

An alarming threat landscape

Hospitals have good reasons to take physical security seriously. They face dangers including theft, vandalism, violent crime, and even attempted kidnappings. Mitigating these risks is not only a matter of keeping people safe, but also of preventing the serious legal, financial, and reputational harm that physical security incidents can cause to hospitals.

How widespread are these dangers? According to a 2023 report by the International Association for Healthcare Security & Safety (IAHSS) Foundation, for every 100 beds in U.S. hospitals, in the previous calendar year there had been:

• 52 incidents of disorderly conduct.
• 22 simple assaults.
• 6 thefts.
• 8 incidents of vandalism.
• 9 violent criminal incidents (such as murder, rape, robbery, or aggravated assault).
• 6 motor vehicle thefts.
• 5 burglaries.

Addressing those dangers requires hospitals to prevent crimes that could be committed not only by outside criminals, but also by insiders – a growing threat, especially in light of the access that insiders often have to sensitive information and locations. And keeping employees, patients, and visitors safe means protecting them not only from bad actors, but also from accidents.

Adding to the seriousness of the physical security risks facing hospitals are the high costs of much of their equipment, the value and sensitivity of their information, their legal obligations, and the life-saving role that they often play. Meanwhile, their physical security challenges are exacerbated by their need to protect huge campuses and often multiple sites, including parking lots and garages.

The danger of prolonged, undetected downtime

As hospitals face these dangers, modern physical security devices can make a powerful difference in terms of deterrence, prevention, and response. Not only do they help hospitals stay safe from a wide variety of physical security threats, but they also help hospitals’ physical security teams to maximize their cost-efficiency and save money.

But when a camera, access control system, sensor, alarm, or other physical security device has downtime, it simply cannot provide the safety that hospitals need. While physical security device downtime is a serious concern across industries, the danger is particularly acute for hospitals in light of how high the stakes can be in the medical field.

Since physical security devices rely on assets such as network switches, power supplies, and video management systems in order to function properly, downtime among any of these assets can prevent a physical security device from doing its job. Also adding to the problem of downtime is hospitals’ lack of real-time visibility into the operational status of both their physical security devices and the other assets on which those devices rely. When hospitals’ physical security teams have little insight regarding their devices’ performance, they face a real risk that they will only discover that a device is offline after a serious physical security incident has occurred.

Even after downtime is detected, resolving it often takes a dangerously long time. In part, that’s because physical security devices’ dependence on other assets tends to complicate the process of diagnosing the underlying issue. It’s also partially because hospitals (like other types of organizations) often rely on time-consuming (and expensive) truck rolls to get their physical security devices back online. Meanwhile, gaps between physical security and IT teams can further complicate the process of diagnosing and resolving issues that cause downtime, often leaving both teams unsure of which of them is responsible for resolving a particular problem.

Taken together, these factors make physical security devices’ downtime a very serious concern for hospitals. Given how reliant hospitals have become on advanced physical security technologies to protect them from the widespread threats that they face, any downtime that occurs can make them particularly vulnerable to those dangers. While there are various types of technical issues that can prevent hospitals’ physical security devices from functioning properly, what they have in common is that they all risk jeopardizing the safety of hospital employees, patients, and visitors – especially when they go undetected.