Access control is essential for the security of any building and its inhabitants. During a pandemic, when you need to be able to limit access to a building and may even need to know who entered a location, good access control solutions become even more important for the safety of your business, your building, and your employees. Here are a few important access control security solutions during a pandemic:

1. Electronic Access Control

Electronic access control is one of the most common access control security solutions. Through the use of a variety of door controllers, including cards, key fobs, readers, and other types of access control readers, you can secure your building and also manage who has access to the building.

Not only does this allow you to keep people from randomly wandering into the facility, but it also allows you to keep track of who is accessing the building and when. This can be helpful during a pandemic because it can help you limit and manage the number of people in the building to allow for social distancing. You can even implement biometric access control for even more data and security.

Electronic access control can help you adhere to any social distancing guidelines in your state. Plus, should you need to provide proof of following those guidelines, access control security solutions can help provide records as evidence of proper compliance.

2. Temperature Screening

Touch-free temperature screening as part of the entry process to your building is one of the important access control security solutions during a pandemic. It can also be useful in managing outbreaks of other common illnesses outside of a pandemic. This makes it one of the environmental monitoring applications across industries that is valuable for visitor management within healthcare and for other types of facilities too.

This can be particularly useful in settings that serve vulnerable populations like assisted living or senior living facilities and healthcare facilities. Even outside of a pandemic, temperature screening of employees and outside visitors can help identify illness and prevent the potential spread to vulnerable residents or patients within these facilities.

3. Face Mask Detection

If face masks are required in your location, facial recognition and mask detection technology is available to help you comply with mask mandates while also reducing the risk of spread to help protect your employees, patients, or residents.

By integrating a touch-free scanner or camera with this technology into your entry screening process, you can ensure that face coverings are present and being used appropriately before granting access to your facility.

4. Wander Management

Any facility that has residents who are a flight risk or at risk of wandering needs to consider access control security solutions that keep residents from fleeing or wandering into dangerous situations. Comprehensive wander management solutions are the perfect fit for protecting residents in this way.

During a pandemic, this can help keep residents from spreading illness to others if they should be quarantining, prevent violations of shelter-in-place orders, and also prevent them from wandering into high-risk situations where they may be exposed to illness.

5. Asset Management & Tracking

A comprehensive asset management & tracking solution is useful in warehouses, manufacturing facilities, colleges & universities, hospitals, retirement homes, and more. Not only does it provide an inventory of the equipment or products your facility has, but it also provides data on where equipment is, the condition of it, and its current status.

In addition to keeping people safe during a pandemic, many facilities also need to keep track of products and equipment. Not only does this help facilities respond to events rapidly, but it can also help reduce and prevent the risk of spread through contaminated surfaces. This is one of the applications of environmental monitoring in healthcare.

You can keep track of cleaning and sanitation while also noting who has come into contact with that equipment. In a hospital setting, asset management & tracking solutions allow you to mobilize necessary equipment more quickly, improve quality of care, and also handle an influx of patients as efficiently as possible. These are all benefits of effective asset management in healthcare.

6. Video Surveillance

Video surveillance products are an essential component of a good security solution and can be valuable for access control as well. Plus, making sure you have video surveillance for the best places to install security cameras is applicable to almost any business operation or facility even when there isn’t a pandemic and is important during a pandemic.

With a good video surveillance system during a pandemic and intelligent video analytics, you can keep track of who is in your building, who they have come into contact with, how many people are in the building at the same time, whether social distancing and mask guidelines are being followed, and more. If your facility is gated and guarded, video surveillance allows your security guards to determine who is attempting to gain access and whether they should be permitted.

This can help protect your employees during a pandemic. This can be especially useful if someone tests positive and you need to identify who else they may have come into contact with in order to prevent an outbreak.

Video surveillance also helps to protect your operation from claims that you aren’t following guidelines. With video records, you can provide evidence that you are following the proper guidelines at your facility and avoid the consequences that may have been levied if you were not doing so.

These are just a few important access control security solutions to consider during a pandemic. They can help secure your building and improve safety for your employees, patients, residents, etc. during uncertain times.

Every operation’s needs are different. Although there may be some solutions that work for a wide variety of applications, the right mix of access control security solutions will be different for every building. Choosing the right security systems integrator for your facility can help you get what you need.

It’s important to work with a reputable and experienced security solutions provider who can customize the right mix of products to meet your needs. Contact NEPPS today for a free site assessment!