Video Surveillance in Hospitals: Comprehensive Care Requires Comprehensive Security

There are a lot of moving parts to hospital operations. People and vehicles are constantly in motion in and around hospitals and it takes more than human oversight to efficiently monitor and respond to security-related incidents. This article explores how AI-powered video surveillance in hospitals enhances staff and patient safety with real-time monitoring, smart incident detection and quick responsiveness through Artificial Intelligence Resources’ (AIR) AI Video Analytics Platform.

How Does AI-Driven Video Surveillance Enhance Hospital Security?

A better question might be: how doesn’t it? In healthcare settings, real-time video surveillance improves patient and visitor safety, while also optimizing facility management and expediting emergency response times. The solution monitors multiple areas at once – from parking lots and emergency room entrances to patient waiting areas and nursing stations, allowing security personnel to focus on other tasks.

Hospitals are among the most dynamic environments. Minute by minute, staff may face any number of unpredictable situations, from critical medical emergencies to unexpected behaviors from patients or visitors.

In addition to monitoring for aggressive behaviors toward staff or a family dispute in a waiting room, real-time video surveillance is also used to detect critical events like spills, slips and falls, overcrowded out-patient areas, illegal parking, smoke and fire, and to watch for unauthorized people trying to enter restricted areas. It is the application of AI analytics technology to video surveillance footage that enables rapid response to these and other incidents. That’s exactly what the AIR AI Video Analytics Platform is designed to do.

Real-Time Analysis And Response for Healthcare Providers

The AIR AI Video Analytics Platform harnesses the power of advanced AI and machine learning to revolutionize video surveillance and analytics. By transforming raw video data from existing CCTV cameras and video management systems (VMS) into actionable intelligence faster than any human, the system enhances the safety of patients, staff, and visitors through real-time situational awareness across all areas of hospital operations. More than just capturing video footage for later review, the platform identifies and responds to incidents as they happen, based on rules set by the customer.

The Video Analytics Platform extracts and analyzes metadata from real-time video streams to generate alarms for specific behaviors and events. It offers dozens of predefined “AI rules” that can be set for each camera depending upon location and application. The software supports up to 32 different rules per camera, and the platform is scalable to support an unlimited number of cameras.

Here’s a sampling of some AI rules supported by the AIR AI Video Analytics Platform for automated alerts:

  • Intrusion/Tailgating
  • Face Mask Detection
  • Forensic Face Search/Blurring
  • White/Black Watch List (Person of Interest Detection – Facial Recognition)
  • Trip and Fall Detection
  • Aggressive Behavior Detection
  • Heatmap and Social Distancing
  • Crowd Forming/Overcrowding/Loitering Detection
  • Crowd Panic Detection
  • Weapon Detection
  • Smoke Detection
  • Vehicle Type/Speeding/Overstay/Intrusion Detection
  • Illegal Parking/Congestion at Pick-up/Drop-off Zones
  • Blocked Route Detection
  • Abandoned Vehicle
  • License Plate Recognition

Customers can select any combination of rules they wish as part of their subscription, and the rules are completely customizable. The solution presents alerts and analytic data for all events in a centralized, multi-pane dashboard which displays real-time information, allowing for quick response by security personnel. By leveraging the speed of AI and deep learning, the platform not only provides a comprehensive view of hospital activity but also facilitates forensic and investigative searches of video data by location, time, or appearance in seconds. Extremely versatile, the software can be hosted on servers located on premise or in the cloud.

Key Applications for AI-Driven Video Surveillance in Healthcare

Hospitals typically prioritize these areas for deploying AI-driven video surveillance:

  • Facilities Management. AI-driven video surveillance helps manage the flow of people in critical areas, improving the patient and visitor experience. Real-time monitoring of waiting rooms, emergency departments, and treatment zones helps identify bottlenecks and optimize the allocation of staff and resources to match patient volume. It can identify those who need immediate assistance and help reduce queues. For example, the software can count people entering different parts of the hospital and calculate occupancy data to predict when an area is likely to become overcrowded, allowing for proactive management. Heatmaps can be used to highlight areas where people have been stationary for longer than a pre-defined amount of time, indicating congestion.
  • Traffic Management. Clear access for emergency vehicles is vital at hospitals. Being able to automatically detect and promptly clear vehicles that are double-parked, parked illegally, or blocking access to drop-off zones could be lifesaving. The platform uses a combination of AI and scenario-based detection algorithms to sense these and other vehicle-related violations. In combination with PTZ cameras the system can identify people loitering in parking lots, monitor for intrusion, detect smoke and fire, and aid in notifying the security team about illegally parked vehicles to have them moved or issue a citation.
  • Patient Management. Hospitals and healthcare facilities have multiple access points that need to be monitored and protected in order to create a safe environment for staff, patients and visitors – a.k.a. Access Control. Continuous monitoring of patient areas, corridors, and entrances to restricted areas alerts staff to incidents such as patient falls, family disturbances, or unauthorized attempts to access to sensitive areas like surgery suites and the pharmacy. The platform also tracks people as they move about the hospital, providing alerts for tailgating or other suspicious behavior such as crowding around entrances and face mask detection using facial recognition.
  • Emergency Management. During emergencies such as medical crises, security threats, or natural disasters, AI-enhanced surveillance detects critical events in real-time. The centralized dashboard allows staff to coordinate incident response and deploy resources to ensure the safety of patients, staff, and visitors. Post event, the platform’s advanced forensic search and multi-camera tracking capabilities help security personnel identify relevant video footage to review incidents quickly and accurately.

Improve Safety While Reducing Costs with AIR AI Video Analytics

The AIR AI Video Analytics Platform provides centralized surveillance and AI-driven analytics to enhance security while reducing operational costs. By quickly detecting and responding to unusual activities or emergencies, hospitals can prevent incidents before they escalate.

For hospital administrators, that means patients, staff, visitors, and vehicles will be safer, operations will be more efficient, and incident response will be improved through data-driven decisions regarding staffing and asset management. Responders will be deployed to the right location with the right tools and resources to handle any incident. Traffic – both patient and vehicular – will flow smoother to improve service delivery, resulting in higher satisfaction and community support.

The solution reduces the overall cost of security as well. The centralized dashboard provides a complete picture of hospital operations that can be managed by a smaller staff, lowering manpower requirements. AI-enabled intelligent behavior interpretation reduces the incidence of false alarms and the unnecessary deployment of personnel. Plus, the platform integrates with existing CCTV camera systems, eliminating the need for new cameras. Finally, servers process the video streams with metadata for an affordable, predicable, monthly subscription.

Schedule a Call Now

Our schools are among the most valuable and vulnerable places in our communities. Discover how AI Video Analytics offered by AIR can discreetly and affordably enhance security at your institution. Contact us today to learn more, and schedule an online project review and estimate.