Managing a long-term care facility has its challenges; you’re juggling a variety of different tasks and responsibilities and the last thing you want to do is deal with the abundance of security issues that inevitably come with the job.
As laid out by the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety Foundation (IAHSSF), these issues can range from patient record privacy breaches, workplace violence, theft, and even missing residents.
If you want to maintain a high level of security for your patients and employees, we recommend you look to modern software tools that can help you track and record all visitors entering and leaving the building. In this blog article we’ve detailed five questions you should answer when choosing the best visitor management system for your long-term care facility.
1. Is It Customizable?
While there are many visitor management systems available, it’s important you find a system that gives you the option to customize the look-and-feel of the user-interface so it showcases your brand.
You only have 7 seconds to make a good first impression. With a customizable visitor management system, you can create a beautiful and memorable first impression for all your visitors when they first arrive.
We recommend creating and using a brand style guide so you have consistent branding. You should also showcase your logo front and center, and consider displaying the logo against contrasting colors with a simple screensaver.
2. Is It Easy to Use?
There are a few questions you need to consider regarding ease of use:
- The first is whether the visitor management system is easy to manage on a daily basis. Ideally, it should be easy for receptionists to create their own visitor fields, collect required visitor details, capture visitor photos, and digitally record signed visitor agreements. Furthermore, if the visitor has an appointment with someone from the management team, the team members should receive an instant email or SMS notification of the guest’s arrival to reduce the wait-time.
- The second question to look into is whether the visitor management system allows for self-registration. If your visitors can check themselves in at the care facility this saves time for front-office staff. It’s great if the software can also pre-register guests and remember the details of frequent visitors.
The third question is whether you need technical support to launch and maintain the system. If you’re a small-to-medium size long-term care facility, you may not have the budget to hire a large IT and security team for your visitor management software. It’s therefore important you choose a system that’s easy and quick to set up, with simple maintenance options. Selecting a cloud-based package is advantageous since they’re easy to download and install, and often undergo automatic updates without having to worry about maintaining the system.
Finally, when it comes to ease of use, we recommend finding a provider that has a comprehensive help center and dedicated support team. It would be ideal if they have real-time support as well (such as a live chat option); in the event that you encounter a technical difficulty, the support team can get you up and running in no time.
3. Can It Track Both Employees and Visitors?
Did you know that many visitor management systems can double as an employee in-out board as well? Visitor management systems like SwipedOn let contractors and employees check in and out at no extra cost. This is great if your staff members are constantly in and out of the building several times a day. It also boosts efficiency for your front-desk staff since they no longer need to manually check employees in and out of the building.
With SwipedOn’s visitor management system, employees can check themselves in and out by simply tapping or sliding their badges as they enter or leave the premises.
SwipedOn’s real-time employee dashboard gives you an accurate picture of the visitors and employees in your facility.
4. Can It Print Visitor ID Badges?
Having visitor ID badges is a great way to differentiate between employees, contractors, and visitors on-site. According to IDSecurityOnline, visitor ID badges enhance the security and safety protocols in your long-term care facility and can give your organization’s professional image a big boost.
While printing visitor ID badges can be a tedious and cumbersome process, today’s modern visitor management systems can digitize this process and print visitor ID badges right after visitors sign in. This feature will streamline and speed up the visitor management process so your visitors aren’t left waiting in the lobby, while your front-of-house staff have more time to focus on other important tasks.
5. Can It Aid with Evacuations?
Many visitor management systems can also aid with evacuations by functioning as a real-time record-keeper and expedited roll call. Since SwipedOn’s cloud-based technology system operates on an iPad, in the event of an emergency receptionist staff can simply pick up the SwipedOn iPad and track the location of all visitors, employees, and patients. This can all be carried out offline.
During emergencies, SwipedOn can also help you coordinate with emergency responders using the information from the visitor management system. This includes the number of visitors, employees, and patients still unaccounted for, as well as specific areas that they were in when the emergency began.
When it comes to managing your long-term care facility, there are many security challenges you need to be aware of. These can range from patient record privacy breaches, theft, to workplace violence. In fact, according to Campus Safety Magazine, nursing and residential care facilities are the industries that have the highest prevalence of non-fatal occupational violence with a rate of 6.8 out of 100 full-time workers.
Thankfully, today’s modern visitor management system can help you stay on top of your security responsibilities for your patients, staff, and the organization as a whole.
Final thoughts
Before you purchase a visitor management system, we recommend you compare your options. Make sure your choice is customizable, easy to use, can track both employees and visitors, prints visitor ID badges seamlessly, and can aid with evacuations.
According to Ernest Hamilton from Tech Times, SwipedOn was one of the top visitor management systems of 2019, writing that it’s “easy-to-use, it comes with a simple dashboard with sections for each overhead such as visitor info, time, error, and, etc. Completely customizable, it lets one pick what works and leave what does not. It is adept at ensuring visitor agreement, authorization, and offers instant notification about the same… ...The all-encompassing tracking framework gives a minute by minute report of employees and visitors, thereby, ensuring accurate management.”
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