CoxHealth, the area leader in healthcare and community involvement in southwest Missouri, has upgraded its public safety and security officers’ body worn cameras with a new state-of-the-art solution, increasing overall patient, visitor, and medical staff safety. The open architecture-based solution easily integrated with CoxHealth’s existing video management system (VMS) and it provides the scalability necessary to meet the present and future needs of the organization and its numerous SW Missouri locations.
“There have always been incidents and threats of patient-generated violence in healthcare, but recent years have seen an escalation in the level of violence and aggression associated with patient incidents,” said Alan Butler, system director of public safety and security at CoxHealth. “The deployment and upgrade of body worn cameras has helped to deter incidents and reduce the number of false claims of officer misconduct, offering a clearer picture of every interaction, and has resulted overall in better behavior of guests, patients, and families.”
While body worn cameras act as a safety tool, they have also proved vital to improving officer training methods, and in the case of CoxHealth have helped training programs emphasize de-escalation tactics. For example, body worn camera footage of an incident on a medical campus can be reviewed internally, and new ways to approach a situation can be developed more effectively. This enables the organization to better train its officers, providing them with the proper tools to better manage intense and potentially violent situations.
Another instance where body worn cameras have been particularly useful for de-escalation and preventing patient incidents is in COVID-19 screening scenarios. With the onset of the pandemic, CoxHealth frequently deals with visitors and patients who are angry about COVID-19 restrictions. These interactions occur at entry portals, where hospital staff are tasked with screening individuals. Body worn cameras and captured footage have been valuable in de-escalating tense interactions, helping healthcare staff be more effective, and serving as training materials.
In addition to improved security functions, the healthcare organization emphasized the need for a more user-friendly solution, and with this new upgrade, officers are issued a key fob containing an RFID tag which, when swiped, configures a specific camera with that officer’s information for the duration of their shift. At the end of each shift, the camera is placed back in a charger and automatically downloads all recordings to a video management system. This feature allows for ease-of-use, and for cameras to be shared seamlessly across work shifts, regardless of user.
CoxHealth has outfitted its team of more than 60 public safety and security officers with body worn cameras for over three years, however, the organization felt the older equipment was fragile, lacked sufficient video quality, and important user-friendly features. When CoxHealth began its search for an upgraded solution, they turned to NetWatch Inc., an integrated security solutions provider located in Nixa, Missouri, who was able to assist the organization in selecting Axis Communications cameras as its upgraded solution.