Senseon Security Lessons From Other Industries

Key Points:

Other industries can be valuable sources of inspiration for healthcare security.
Manufacturing, retail, and hospitality provide insights around the use of technology, establishing a plan, and the importance of prioritizing security.
Once healthcare leaders have learned from other industries, there are many ways to translate those lessons to the healthcare space.

Read Time: 3 minutes

Healthcare leaders are learning a lot of different lessons from other industries these days and security is no different.

From retail to manufacturing, it’s possible to find valuable insight from other fields where people might have a different perspective and even longer experience with security challenges. We’ve combed through physical security insights from across the business world and want to share them with you. Here are some of our favorites.

Manufacturing: Apply the Right Technologies

Is technology important to healthcare security? Of course, but it’s important to ask which technologies.

In manufacturing, just like healthcare, it’s hard to find the balance between over and under-securing a facility. For example, sometimes leaders buy too many cameras or don’t understand their features. Security leaders in the manufacturing industry are encouraged to find professionals who understand the most effective ways to achieve physical security in ways that are flexible, stable, and scalable. They’re encouraged to look at aspects like:

Access control for entrances and high-risk areas
Contact and motion sensors
Video surveillance
Intrusion detection
Alarm monitoring

Retail: Have a Plan

With prices dropping, retail security leaders have been showing new interest in RFID, but that brings up a lot of questions of how exactly it should be applied. Holden Bale, lead retail strategist for ThoughtWorks, a global consultancy focused on using technology to drive business innovation in retail, has an answer. “RFID is meaningless if it’s not used as an enabler. If a company buys it without use cases for it, then there’s no ROI.”

Finding that ROI starts with a plan. Successful retail security professionals are building plans by first weighing pros and cons around things like inventory control, privacy and transparency, impact on the consumer, and the cost of integration.

Hospitality: Make it a Priority

You’ll see a lot of healthcare leaders looking to the hospitality sector for inspiration, and there’s a good reason for that. Hospitality’s experience-centered focus is very similar to patient-centered cultural shifts in healthcare. That’s even more reason to pay attention to just how security leaders in hospitality make security a priority. Here are a few examples you’ll see stressed over in the world of hotels and resorts:

Updating locks
Making space for safety meetings
Leveraging software to monitor activities
Focusing on liabilities and improving quickly
Making sure IT and security departments are working together

Pharma: Tracing Counterfeit Drugs

OK, so this isn’t really advice from outside healthcare, but taking a look at how the pharmaceutical side of the industry uses security solutions can be a great source of inspiration. If you’ve been keeping up with our monthly Physical Security Roundups, you know that security for hospitals and long term care facilities also includes staying on top of drug diversion challenges.

Pharmaceutical security experts have been addressing a deadly flood of counterfeit drugs by doing things like implementing security seals and embedding products with near field communication tags. The lesson? Security extends to your pharmaceuticals. Make sure you’re leveraging technology and other options to respond to growing problems.

Healthcare leaders interested in improving their own security practices should look to other industries, but never forget that there’s great advice right from their back yard too — especially when it comes to implementing RFID. Make sure to