The customer's challenge
Wesley Medical Centre, near downtown Wichita, Kansas, grew from a humble, 30-bed beginning in 1912 to a three-and-a-half city block campus that provides 760 beds and 102 bassinets. The centre is a designated full-service medical and Level 1 Trauma Centre.
As the campus continues to expand to meet state-wide medical needs, so do the security challenges. New facilities obstructed installed camera views, requiring cameras to be added or repositioned.
Trauma helicopters landed on the rooftop helipad and employees walked underground from the Birth Care Centre to the main hospital, both out of camera view.
The medical centre also needed to ensure the safety and care of patients and staff during the occasional admission of local gang-related injuries and bar fights.
"The old system didn't record very well on VHS tapes," said Jim Carney, director of security at Wesley Medical Centre (WMC). "Several outside PTZ cameras were immovable, creating blind spots, and the playback feature was very time consuming when we did try to locate an event."
Carney called Coby Hayes, president of Apex Technology Solutions in Wichita, for a solution.
The Dedicated Micros solution
"Wesley wanted a design build with ease of use and embedded storage space," said Hayes, "and a matrix that didn't exhaust the video serving budget, so they could invest more into system documentation and retrieval."
Hayes chose 12 Dedicated Micros BX2 1.2 T, 16-channel DVMRs, supported by 2 KBS3 Dedicated Micros keyboards and 2 monitor switchers, and 6 Pelco duplex multiplexers. The monitor switchers allow staff to call up and view multiple cameras on any monitor.
"We saved WMC about $200,000 using Dedicated Micros' monitor switchers instead of another option," said Hayes.
WMC has already resolved thirteen theft cases, including one in which a camera captured a woman in a hospital smock and stethoscope carrying a purse that had been just reported stolen. Five days after her image was circulated around campus, she returned, was arrested and was booked on five WMC cases.
"Dedicated Micros' equipment is a lot easier to record, search and playback than the older equipment," said Carney.
"My favourite feature is that, with a given time and date, I can review an event in just a few minutes and email clips straight to police."
