Incident management software is a useful addition to any comprehensive facility security solution. Not only can it help you keep your facility secure, but it also often integrates with other systems to help make your operations more efficient. Here are a few reasons why you need incident management software:

1. Detect and Respond to Issues Quickly

One of the biggest reasons why you need incident management software is that it allows you to monitor your facility in real-time, and detect and respond to issues quickly. This combines risk management with environmental monitoring and other security systems to make your team and operations more efficient, able to reduce the time it takes to complete the incident management lifecycle, and, ultimately, make your facility more secure.

5 Steps of the Incident Management Lifecycle

No matter the industry, the incident management lifecycle can generally be broken down into five steps:

1. Detection
2. Response
3. Remediation
4. Analysis
5. Readiness

Seamless integration is one of the qualities of good security systems. Because incident management software also tends to integrate with other systems, it can send out alerts and notifications, trigger alarms, and more when an incident occurs. Instead of lags in response times or tickets in a queue, the right people and systems can be notified and mobilized to address the incident immediately.

This makes it an essential component of any risk management approach that reduces the time it takes to move through and complete the incident management lifecycle.

2. Consolidate Incident Information in One Place

With incident management software, incident information is consolidated and collected in one place; usually a centralized dashboard. This also makes it more easily accessible to the people that need it. All records, notes, information, evidence, statuses, etc. are in one easily accessible place and can be efficiently viewed and processed. This is particularly useful when monitoring large areas and facilities and managing security at outdoor shopping centers, campuses, etc.

With rules-based processing, artificial intelligence, and more, incident management software can be customized to your facility, operations, and existing systems. Hospitals need comprehensive security solutions and so do other facilities; your incident management software should be able to consolidate and centralize system feedback in one place.

3. Classify, Categorize, and Prioritize Incidents

In addition to consolidating all the important information into a centralized dashboard, an incident management system should allow you to manually, and through rules-based processing, categorize incidents for more in-depth analysis and reporting. Looking for these things is one of the tips to choose the best nurse call system for your facility that you can apply when reviewing other security systems you need as well.

Prioritizing incidents is useful for making sure everything makes it into your team’s workflow in a way that makes sense and is resolved as quickly as possible. Once incidents are resolved, you should be able to further classify and categorize them to help organize the information and get more valuable insights from it later. Being able to do this can also help you improve processes and combat alarm fatigue in healthcare facilities.

4. Meet Compliance and Mitigate Liability

Some industries and businesses have certain mandates that need to be met in order to also meet compliance requirements. An incident management system allows you to build compliance standards into it to ensure your facility and everyone on your team is aware and nothing is left out when responding to an incident.

An incident management system, when paired with other security systems, can also help reduce and prevent incidents. Comprehensive security and fast response times are some of the ways to help prevent workplace violence in healthcare.

These concepts can be applied across industries to improve patient safety, improve workplace safety, and more. For example, in the cybersecurity sector, an incident response team reduced the total costs of data breaches by $360,000 from the mean of $3.92 million.

5. Review and Analyze Incidents to Improve Security

A good incident management system will store incident records and allow you to generate various types of reports. Using these reports when you are regularly reviewing facility security or developing a building vulnerability assessment, you can review incidents and identify security gaps.

If you don’t have an incident management system in place or it doesn’t allow you to generate reports, those are some signs your security technology needs an upgrade. By looking at the types of incidents that have occurred over time, where they have happened, how frequently they happened, and more, you can find gaps in your current security.

In doing so, you can discover and implement ways to improve building security, better protect patients, employees, visitors, etc., and even prevent some incidents from occurring again. For example, robust reporting and analysis can help healthcare facilities continue to improve and develop effective wander prevention plans.

These are just a few reasons why you need incident management software to help manage and secure your facility and what to look for in incident management software. If your building security needs an update or an upgrade, contact Northeast Protection Partners at 800-736-1456 to schedule a free site assessment!