Bayreuth Regional Hospital protects its administration building with IKON’s VERSO CLIQ

Bayreuth – Bayreuth Regional Hospital protects its administration building with VERSO CLIQ, the intelligent locking system from IKON. Hospital administration is doubly secure as VERSO CLIQ combines advanced microelectronics and intelligent data encryption with a secure, mechanical locking system. This not only guarantees security, but also ensures a high degree of flexibility and cost-effectiveness. When access authorisations are changed or keys lost, the locking cylinders concerned can be reprogrammed easily and quickly using the associated software and without the expense of replacing locking cylinders.

A former mental asylum, Bayreuth Regional Hospital was founded in 1872 as a hospital for mentally ill patients requiring inpatient treatment. Psychiatric care of some sort has long existed in the Bayreuth area. An institution for the mentally ill is said to have already existed in the fourteenth century. During the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, the so-called Princesses’ House in St. Georgen, now in the eastern part of today’s Bayreuth, was developed into what was probably the first “asylum for the mentally ill” in Germany. Over the last 30 years, this regional hospital has become a highly specialised institution with four specialist departments offering diagnosis, therapy, care and rehabilitation for people with mental and neurological disorders.

Access control for hospital administration department

Since the hospital administration moved to its present building in 2006, the offices for different departments such as executive management, human resources, EDP, purchasing, controlling, public relations and quality management are in a single location. The staff committee also has its office there.
For this reason, Bayreuth Regional Hospital relies on a flexible locking system which securely controls all access authorisations and lock hierarchies according to individual circumstances, the system being tailored for each user separately. The administration wing is precisely the place where a large number of individual offices have different lock operational modes and security requirements. For instance, sensitive areas where personal data is processed, such as the executive management and human resources offices, are actually legally obliged to take suitable measures to prevent unauthorised persons from accessing data processing systems. “We were looking for a system which could include all such features,” says Holger Christiansen, the assistant technical manager at Bayreuth Regional Hospital. “With VERSO CLIQ, we have found the best solution for our needs.” After putting the locking system out to tender, the hospital decided on VERSO CLIQ as it both complied with the hospital administration’s requirements and won over due to its cost-performance ratio.

Distinct advantage - Easy operation

Further convincing arguments for VERSO CLIQ are its straightforward operation and system programming. “For me, the system and its components are clearly laid out, making it easy to operate,” says Christiansen. “What’s more, it greatly reduces our workload as those servicing the system don’t need to start up each locking cylinder individually to replace the batteries.” In IKON’s VERSO CLIQ locking system, only the keys and programming keys are used to supply power and communicate with the locking cylinder. The standard battery in the key can be replaced by system users themselves. “Key holders now come to us in the central key management office; we no longer need to go out and change batteries,” says a very pleased Christiansen. “Another advantage of this type of power supply system is the fact we don’t need to retrofit doors and also save significantly on cabling costs.”

No more replacing locking cylinders

When a key is lost, authorised access can be quickly eliminated through a simple reprogramming of cylinders using a programming key. The lost key will then immediately become useless for any unauthorised person who tries to use it. Complete security is thus assured and the laborious, cost-intensive task of replacing locking cylinders is no longer necessary. “In our old mechanical locking system, the locking cylinders first had to be ordered and then replaced, a time-consuming chore. Now, deprogramming cylinders saves us both time and money,” explains Christiansen. “ASSA ABLOY’s locking system will certainly pay for itself in the long run.”

Keys for specific time slots

Besides patients and visitors, all kinds of people come into a hospital such as Bayreuth Regional Hospital, meaning security plays an important role during certain periods. When issuing VERSO CLIQ keys for short periods to external service providers such as tradesmen, cleaners and kitchen staff, the so-called “guest key” comes into play with its time-restricted, limited-area access authorisation. This key can be programmed independently from the locking cylinder. “Due to the specific time slots programmed into keys, cleaning staff only have access to administration offices at certain times,” explains Christiansen. “VERSO CLIQ technology also enables us to check who opened which door – regardless of whether of it was an external or internal employee.”