Streamline Personnel Management with the Active Directory Bridge

You probably already use Microsoft’s Active Directory to manage and monitor the electronic resources of your facilities. Who has access to what computers, who can access patient medical records, who reviewed selected patient records last week.  
· Manage Personnel Access – Active Directory’s personnel database becomes single authority.

· Monitor – Cabinet access rules are updated , in real-time, by Active Directory changes

· Report – Active Directory audit reporting can show who has access to specific cabinets. 

Benefits:    · Timely disbursement and control of medications

· Secured Access to equipment

The NetLock™ Active Directory Bridge (AD-Bridge) allows administrators of the NetLock™ Software suite to simplify the task of managing user identities within the enterprise.

As more and more independent software systems are introduced into an organization, it is not uncommon for system administrators to develop one-off (and error prone) processes to ensure that appropriate user access configurations are maintained across systems.  End-users can benefit from solutions which relieve them of this burden by automating the management of user access permissions.

AD-Bridge accomplishes this task by automatically synchronizing user data between the customer’s Microsoft Active Directory™ and the NetLock™ Software suite.

AD-Bridge Benefits: 
· Eliminates the manual steps required to add and delete the users of the NetLock Access Control System.
· Reduces on-going operational costs by up to 50%, thru the automation of user access configuration maintenance.

· Using Microsoft’s Active Directory™ as a central user control point improves organizational security.  When personnel leave the organization, one operation will remove their access to the network, and all physical facilities.

· Leverages the customer’s existing Active Directory centric security policies and procedures that are used to meet regulatory reporting requirements, such as HIPAA or Sarbanes-Oxley.

· Allows multiple locations to have local, independent access control systems, and yet have a single master personnel database.

· Reduced Training Expenses. AD-Bridge leverages the Microsoft Active Directory’s Group Membership features, to allow the management of the ACS personnel configurations with the same techniques used to manage access to other corporate resources.

· The AD-Bridge’s extremely flexible field-mapping feature allows easy configuration of the system to match the current Microsoft Active Directory usage.  

AD-Bridge Controls Personnel Data & Access Authorization
AD-Bridge Controls Personnel Data Access Authorization handled by Security Department
AD-Bridge Controls Personnel Data for Multiple Installations

Hospital Security Project Brief

Hospital Improves Safeguards for Dispensing of Medications:

Like other hospitals around the country, Sinai Hospital of Baltimore deals with the often competing goals of improving patient safety, patient satisfaction, nurse satisfaction and nursing efficiency, all while controlling costs. A recent project – the installation of single-patient, automated medication cabinets in each patient room – has resulted in improvements in all of these areas.

The initial goal of the project was to decrease the potential for error during medication administration by moving the entire process to the patient’s bedside. The “NetLock” Medication Cabinets, manufactured by Cygnus, Inc. of Petoskey, MI are in the patient’s room, thus eliminating the need for the Registered Nurse to make repeated trips to a centralized medication storage point, such as a medication cart. According to Bonnie Hartley Faust, MS, MBA, RN, Director of Patient Care Services for Sinai Hospital, “The new cabinets were a hit with our nurses from the start. Having the patient’s medications right at the bedside has not only improved efficiency, but it has afforded us an added level of medication safety. The nurse is better able to ensure that the correct meds are dispensed to the correct patient at the correct time. This added security has made the cabinets quite successful with our patients as well.”[Continue Reading]

No vendor is perfect on 'meaningful use,' report concludes

June 08, 2009 | Bernie Monegain, Editor

OREM, UT – Even as the healthcare IT industry awaits the official definition of "meaningful use" from the federal government, a new report from KLAS examines which electronic medical record products should fit that description.

The report, "Meaningful Use Leading to Improved Outcomes," assesses how well core clinical vendors are delivering solutions for CPOE, nursing automation, medication administration and other key areas.

Nine EMR vendors are profiled in the report: Cerner, CPSI, Eclipsys, Epic, GE, McKesson, Meditech, QuadraMed and Siemens.

"Since the introduction of the stimulus package and its provisions for health IT, much of the market rhetoric and industry debate has centered on the concept of meaningful use – what will it entail and how will it impact the receipt of stimulus dollars," said KLAS Founder and Chairman Kent Gale. "Whatever the final definition of the term, if improved patient outcomes are indeed the ultimate goal, then some form of clinician adoption will be critical."

"In particular, deep adoption among physicians is pivotal to the overarching success of an EMR implementation," Gale said. [Continue Reading]

Cygnus NetLock Gains Traction

Our new Netlock, LAN-based, power over ethernet locking system is gaining significant traction in the industry. The word is out that we have THE solution to keep medications secure and auditable.

Another cool feature of the lock is that the lock combinations are controlled through a central database. The caregiver uses the same card as they "clock in" with and that they use to gain access to other areas of the facility. Now all the systems can be accessed using the same card. No more forgotten combinations or lost keys to access medications.

When the caregiver holds their card up to the medication box, the card reader records the user data and verifies permissions. If the caregiver has been authorized, the entry is recorded and sent to the administrator. If the caregiver does NOT have authorization, the attempted entry is also recorded and sent to the administrator. Now a facility can see who is trying to get into areas where they do not belong.

Check out more information about the NetLock. http://www.cygnusinc.net/products/network_lock.html

Network Lock Keeps Full Audit Trail for Security

Cygnus now has a network-based lock solution as a security option for all of its wall mounted computer workstations. The networked lock will make it easier for the staff to access the cabinet with the simple swipe of a proximity card. The new lock will also make it easier to monitor access by creating a real-time audit trail for each cabinet.

One of the many great features of this lock system is the ease of administration. Users can be added and deleted, access restricted to certain floors, and much more all from a central location with the use of a simple software interface.

The lock is powered over the ethernet network (PoE) so there is no need for an additional power supply to be dropped by an electrician. Setup is simple due to the lock being a true IP device.

For more information visit the netlock product page. Talk to a product specialist at 888-760-8159.

Barcoding meds improves quality

It can be quite difficult for medication to reach the right patient, with the right medication, with the right dose at the right time. A new report shows that barcoding medication results in 55% reduction in errors. The study goes on to show that 1,000,000 injuries and almost 100,000 deaths can be attributed to medical errors every year.

Here is the story from Diana Manos in Healthcare IT News.

ROCKVILLE, MD – The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's National Resource Center for Health Information Technology has released a report that shows how barcode medication administration can improve the quality, safety, efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare. The report, released Wednesday, focuses on lessons learned from AHRQ projects where barcode medication administration and electronic medication administration record technologies (eMAR) were used. READ MORE>>