Georgia Medical Center Uses Avigilon HD Surveillance System To Reduce Costs, Improve Investigation Times
Avigilon recently announced that Southside Medical Center, Georgia’s oldest and largest Federally Qualified Health Center, has deployed the Avigilon HD surveillance system to boost patient and staff safety.
Facing many security challenges including gang-related activities, on site domestic violence, disputes among patients, vandalism, break-ins and theft, Southside Medical Center selected the Avigilon HD surveillance system because it delivers superior image clarity to capture the evidence required to identify, confirm and convict.
“We are in a new era,” said Dr. David M. Williams, chief executive officer at Southside Medical Center. “We are moving forward with our plans to have the nation’s first Federally Qualified Health Center of Excellence and having state-of-the-art technology will help us achieve our goal in an efficient and reliable manner.”
Southside Medical Center installed Avigilon Control Center Network Video Management Software with HD Stream Management on three Avigilon HD NVRs. One Avigilon 16 megapixel camera, in addition to several Avigilon 11 and 5 megapixel cameras, were installed on the exterior of the facility for perimeter monitoring. Nine Avigilon analog video encoders were used to integrate the existing 28 analog cameras into the new Avigilon HD surveillance system, creating a hybrid system that facilitates the migration from analog to digital as budget allows.
“Our previous analog-based surveillance system produced grainy and monochrome images, and could not zoom effectively to capture the image detail needed for positive identification,” said Barlon Lundgren, JD, CHPA, and director of corporate affairs at Southside Medical Center. “With the Avigilon HD Surveillance System, we can retrieve exact image details twice as fast as we could with our previous system leading to faster, more cost-effective, and successful investigations.”
Leveraging the Avigilon Control Center NVMS Southside Medical Center can easily export footage to enable law enforcement officials to review it without having to install Avigilon Control Center software on their own system.
Requiring less additional equipment than other systems, the Avigilon HD surveillance system was easily integrated with the medical center’s existing infrastructure, resulting in lower installation costs. Further cost savings were realized by being able to achieve greater coverage with fewer Avigilon megapixel cameras. The management team has also saved operational costs by leveraging the Avigilon HD surveillance system to monitor and resolve conflicts between patients and staff.