When it came to the technology component, Weeks knew legacy systems were going to pose problems, including some VCRs in small locations. He looked at amalgamating access control systems and weighed the benefits of consolidating on one system versus keeping the two main legacy systems going. He opted not to put all his eggs in one basket.

For example, the former Calgary Health Region was using AMAG, and everything north of Edmonton was using Lenel.

“We looked at choosing one of those manufacturers and going with it provincially, but at the end of the day it was going to cost a lot to migrate one to the other because there were too many competitive aspects,” he says.
Instead, it was decided to continue to run with the two products so in the operation centre it’s divided in half — north and south. The south zone runs on AMAG and the north on Lenel.

Bringing together all the disparate systems was a major challenge.

“We were looking at bringing over a dozen different proprietary legacy systems into two platforms,” says Greg Smith, director of enterprise security systems and analysis, who praises the in-house talents of the technical staff on board at Alberta Health.

Alberta Health has also invested in training for its in-house staff on card readers and how to troubleshoot cameras and installations. Smith’s department also benchmarks equipment and invites the IT department to participate on decision-making to help guarantee buy-in.

Smith says one of the benefits he’s already seeing from centralization is when it comes to replacing or repairing equipment. “Because we have stock available, if a camera or card reader goes down, we can immediately send out replacement equipment and have it fixed faster. In the old system it was a big deal to purchase something, but now, when, for example, Fort Vermillion has a few cameras go down, we don’t have to send up an integrator by float plane — we can FedEx up a couple of cameras and the on-site facilities person can hook them up.”
When it came to evaluating what sites to upgrade first, priority was given to the small hospitals with ER departments without security at the site.

“We’re looking at technology that will allow us to lock down the ER and, through the operation centre, have two”“way communication with the nurse who might have to go to the door to determine if she lets the person in and whether to wait for police or not,” says Weeks.

Weeks knows his biggest challenge is building credibility for the program, and he’s trying to do that through town hall sessions with staff at the hospital level.  He gives full credit to his team and says he’s thankful for the support he gets at the executive level.

“I have the good fortune of having really strong leaders that work with me, so it moves mountains. And that’s what these guys have done in the last year,” he says.

“It’s high risk, but high gain. We have a lot to prove — I’ve made a lot of big statements and sold this to a lot of people. Personally, I have invested a lot into this to make sure it’s successful. I have confidence it will happen because I have a strong team. I couldn’t be happier being part of this.”