Benefits of Hospital Video Surveillance

Video surveillance saves lives-Especially in intensive care units, patients are mostly unable to communicate a deterioration of their condition to medical staff. Video surveillance enables staff to monitor patients 24/7 – for in an emergency it is the quick reaction of the treating physicians which determines a patient’s chances to survive. In anaesthetic recovery rooms the patients’ conditions are also simply monitored from the nurses’ room.
Increase overall security and safety – Security cameras positioned throughout a hospital help to prevent crimes and break-ins and also allow operators to watch for troubled patients and monitor for unauthorized visitors in restricted areas.
Improve worker productivity – The presence of surveillance cameras on the premises can improve communication between hospital departments or buildings, allowing for heightened productivity.
Security in the newborn nursery-Repeatedly, cases of children being kidnapped from newborn nurseries hit the headlines. In order to ensure that not only the newborn infants may doze peacefully but also their parents may sleep in peace, many hospitals employ video surveillance systems. Hence, nobody enters the baby ward unnoticed. The systems’ flexibility allow for the monitoring system to be connected to an access control system so that no unauthorized persons gain access to the premises
Prevent dishonest claims – In instances where patients or visitors falsely attest to injuring themselves on hospital property, visual evidence from the facility’s security cameras can disprove such assertions, saving the hospital from pricey unwarranted insurance claims.
Resolve employee disputes – Employee disputes are easily resolved when clear visual proof is available. Surveillance cameras can shed light on incidents in question.
Continuous real-time monitoring – IP surveillance allows authorized hospital employees to monitor critical areas continuously, in real time, from their personal computers.
Digital storage – Hospitals that choose to install IP-based video surveillance systems can take advantage of the benefits of digital storage. IP systems enable the user to store recorded footage digitally on network servers, hard-drives or NVRs, where the surveillance video is easily accessible to authorized users, and offers improved searching capabilities.
Visual evidence for investigations – Surveillance cameras can provide invaluable visual evidence for investigations of criminal activity and other specific events that have taken place within or around healthcare facilities.
Remote video monitoring – Remote monitoring is an extremely helpful tool in medical facilities. IP surveillance allows hospital employees to view security camera footage remotely from any PC with network access. Multiple sites can even communicate over the same network with all of the camera views accessible online via the Internet.
Perimeter protection-Surveillance systems are already used in perimeter protection: High-resolution surveillance cameras keep an eye on every corner and ensure that no unauthorized person enters the compound. In most cases, the system will be monitored by a gate keeper via the monitoring software SMAVIA Viewing Client which is very clear and easy to operate, which negates the requirement to employ additional security personnel. Additionally, if a number plate recognition system is connected to the CCTV system, the operation of barriers or traffic lights (i.e. in parking blocks or carriage gateways) can be controlled automatically
These and many more are the advantages of having a video surveillance system in a hospital environment.
Risks of Healthcare Video Surveillance
Over reliance – While video surveillance is an important part of any hospital’s security plan, it’s also critical that the appropriate level of physical security personnel is in place.
Privacy – Security cameras are effective tools for monitoring many sections of a hospital, but patient privacy should be considered when determining whether or not cameras should be placed in a facility’s more private areas.
Tampering – If a security camera is tampered with and damaged, the video signal could be lost. Other security measures should be in place to make up for an interrupted signal.
Setup Standards

• Place security cameras that provide views of all building entrances and exits in order to capture images of those entering and leaving the premises.
• Monitor hospital hallways to keep watch over the flow of activity within the facility.
• Position cameras in elevators and fire escapes.
• Utilize surveillance equipment to watch over the hospital’s parking lots and loading areas.
• Install security cameras at entrances to restricted areas to ensure that only authorized users are granted access.
• Position cameras both inside and outside of the facility.

• As healthcare facilities grow larger and provide around-the-clock care, they become more vulnerable to a wide array of security risks and vulnerabilities. While industry guidelines mandate a growing reliance on hospital security under its “Environment of Care” standards, it is the responsibility of each individual hospital and healthcare organization to decide on the right tools to meet their needs.

Hotel Management Systems

Improve your own offerings and create more direct sales with online Hotel Reservation Software and Booking System designed for small or large hotels, resorts, guest houses, motels, villas, bed and breakfasts, to drive those more profitable internet sales.

HotelRoomPro is designed to integrate into either your existing or a new web site or web portal it allows your visitors to enjoy the convenience of a one-stop availability check at your website, instant purchase and auto-generated email confirmation.

Your hotel can maintain total control of rates and availability, thus allowing retail rates to be sold directly to the consumers to improve your average daily rate and return on investment.

Benefits of HotelRoomPro

• Zero Commissions: Save 15% to 25% on commissions you pay to travel agents, travel portals etc.
• Reduce Cost: you no longer have to pay huge fees to third party sites and travel agencies to gain new guests.
• Instant Confirmation: Bookings are confirmed at the moment they are made, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
• Take control of reservations made through your website: There is NO third party involvement. You collect all guest payments. You control your room rates and availability.
• Increases direct sales: as your guests enjoy the convenience of a one-stop availability check at your website, instant purchase and auto-generated email confirmation
• Automate inquiry and guest contact management: reservation scheduling and booking, occupancy and availability management, guest billing, revenue reporting, and room occupancy analysis into one easy to use hotel reservation software.
• Make sales immediately: without time-consuming emails and faxes between guests and your hotel reservations staff.
• Compete directly: with third party online agencies.
• Dynamic Room Allotment: A Hotel simply sets a maximum allotment or inventory either globally or by specific style and standard of room type available.When dealing with a sudden group booking or taking rooms out of service for renovation, etc, a Hotel can immediately change the inventory allotment on the system to prevent overbooking.
• Reduce Distribution costs –HotelRoomPro’s Internet-based technology allows a hotel to make considerable savings in distribution expenses. Room rates can be viewed by all at minimal cost.
• managing room-to-produce reservations: determine the right price, aim at the right market with different rates, based on your hotel's seasonal situation (New Year's, Christmas, summer, etc), numerous markets (travel agents, corporate clients and direct customers), along with varying allotments from time to time with just a few clicks.
• Default display currency: Able to set a default display currency including Naira, US Dollar, €uro.
• Promote Hot Deals for Last Minute Sales: on your hotel website via the Integrated Newsletter & email Engine
• Grab attention by cross-selling and up-selling: offer promotions, and redeem coupons with the P2P (Product to Product) Up-Sell Display Linking and Integrated Coupon & Discount Engine
• Build on success: Incorporates flexible technology infrastructure to allow for rapid response to change.
• Makes web content management easy: Enables anyone to update and manage their online reservation system with ease.
• Online installation support & training: are included with each installation

SME Performance Measures

SMEs PERFORMANCE MEASURES
Performance Measures are indicators that enable assessment of the activities of an enterprise or an organization. They are identified based on the goals of the enterprise.
A performance measure is composed of a number and a unit of measure. The number gives us a magnitude (how much) and the unit gives the number a meaning (what). Performance measures are always tied to a goal or an objective (the target). Performance measures can be represented by single dimensional units like hours, meters, nanoseconds, Naira, number of reports, number of errors, length of time to design hardware, etc. They can show the variation in a process or deviation from design specifications. Single-dimensional units of measure usually represent very basic and fundamental measures of some process or product.
More often, multidimensional units of measure are used. These are performance measures expressed as ratios or two or more fundamental units. These may be units like miles per gallon (a performance measure of fuel economy), number of accidents per million hours worked (a performance measure or the companies safety program), or number of on-time vendor deliveries per total number of vendor deliveries. Performance measures expressed this way almost always convey more information than the single-dimensional or single-unit performance measures. Ideally, performance measures should be expressed in units of measure that are the most meaningful to those who must use or make decisions
Most performance measures can be grouped into one of the following six general categories. However, certain organizations may develop their own categories as appropriate depending on the organization’s mission:
Effectiveness: A process characteristic indicating the degree to which the process output (work product) conforms to requirements. (Are we doing the right things?)
Efficiency: A process characteristic indicating the degree to which the process produces the required output at minimum resource cost. (Are we doing things right?)
Quality: The degree to which a product or service meets customer requirements and expectations.
Timeliness: Measures whether a unit of work was done correctly and on time. Criteria must be established to define what constitutes timeliness for a given unit of work. The criterion is usually based on customer requirements.
Productivity: The value added by the process divided by the value of the labor and capital consumed.
Safety: Measures the overall health of the organization and the working environment of its employees.
The following reflect the attributes of an ideal unit of measure:
* Reflects the customer’s needs as well as our own
* May be interpreted uniformly
* Provides an agreed upon basis for decision making
* Is compatible with existing sensors (a way to measure it exists)
* Is understandable

Buhari targets 30% GDP contribution from ICT to Nigeria

President Muhammadu Buhari has stressed the need to use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to drive the change agenda in order to take the country to a higher level of development.
Speaking at the 2016 edition of the Digital Africa conference and exhibition in Abuja, the President observed that the use of ICT in governance was very vital, adding that the civil servants are the implementors of government policies and if ICT is not deployed in the civil service, “we will be playing a lip service to the issue.”
He noted that government has put in place so many policies that if well harnessed, it would make ICT contribute between 20-30 per cent to the GDP in the next four years.
The president also emphasized the need to create the enabling environment for the country’s teeming youths to take advantage of ICT in order to create jobs, generate wealth and diversify the economy.
He disclosed government’s plan to establish an ICT focused universities in the country.
Earlier in his presentation, Chairman of Zenith Bank Plc, Jim Ovia, observed that the Internet provided the opportunity for people to connect in ways they could never have dreamed possible adding that the Internet of Things will take us beyond connection to become part of a living, moving, global nervous system.
Ovia, who stressed the need for people to prepare for the changes in the ways we will learn, work, and innovate, said, “Whether you are an individual, technology developer or adopter of these technologies, the Internet of Things will stretch the boundaries of today’s systems.
“The technology changed the way we shop with e-commerce solutions, the term “Internet of Things” has come to describe a number of technologies and research disciplines that enable the Internet to reach out into the real world of physical objects. Intelligent interaction between human and things to exchange information and knowledge for new value creation.”
Quoting the International Data Corporation, Ovia noted that IoT will go through a huge growth in the coming years in many directions like the loT and The Cloud, loT and Non-Tradidtional Infrastructure as well as loT and Wearables adding that within five years, 40 per cent of wearables will have evolved into a viable consumer mass market alternative to smartphones.

E-commerce booms, states lose revenues

Operators of large supermarkets and small businesses have raised alarm over a sharp drop in their sales, following the booming online shopping in the country.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet.

Alternative names of the system include e-web-store, e-shop, e-store, online store, online storefront and virtual store.

Some of the managers of the stores, who spoke with NAN, complained that e-commerce had slowed down their businesses as well as reduced volume of sales.

The system has also caused decline in revenues accruing to state governments which have not perfected mechanisms to monitor activities of operators and collect revenues in their states.

A survey on the operation of online shops in some major cities of the country, including Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kaduna, shows that small business operators are complaining of low patronage.

Mr Kazeem Olagoke, Manager, Samsung Telecommunications, in Abeokuta, noted that the ease in buying products online made such system more attractive to clients than buying from open markets.

“Many people prefer to sit within the confines of their rooms and order for goods online which are being delivered to them without sweats.

” You know it saves them transport cost, stress and time they could have spent to purchase the goods at physical markets.

“So it is increasingly becoming difficult to attract and maintain clients,” he said.

Mr Adeyemi Johnson, Manager, Shallom Mega Stores at Oke-Ilewo, Abeokuta, noted that online shopping “has created serious competition in the physical market“.

“Owners of the online businesses have their agents all around, who even visit our stores and lure away our clients.’’

Dr Michael Simpson, a Lecturer at the Department of Economics at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, however, described online shopping as a positive trend in Nigeria.

He noted that the development had contributed significantly to the entrepreneurial skill of Nigeria, particularly the youth.

According to Mrs Adenike Ajala, a civil servant, the advantages of online shopping is that online stores are opened 24 hours daily and internet offered many resources for products and price comparisons.

“It provides customers with a wider range of products and services, many which cannot be found at the physical markets,” she said.

Following the trend in business lull in open markets and the booming e-business, the Kaduna State Government said it planned to set up a structure to monitor the platforms with physical presence in the state.

The state’s Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Malam Shehu Balarabe, said the ministry had begun to identify and locate all online-shopping outlets in the state.

“We need to know where they are and how they operate with a view to checkmate their activities,’’ he said.

The commissioner said that the measure had become necessary to protect consumers from fraudsters who would take advantage of internet’s free highway to swindle consumers.

He noted the need to enlighten the public on the advantages and the dangers of online-markets that were fast gaining popularity with improved internet access.

Mr Jenom Nyam, a Kaduna businessman who utilised online platforms for over 10 years, said highlighted the high risk associated with it and the need for monitoring.

“Sometimes when you make purchase online, after supplying your credit card details, money would be deducted from your account, but the goods will never get to you.’’

However, an economist with the Kaduna State Ministry of Budget and Planning, Mr Yusuf Auta, said in spite of the huge risk associated with e-shopping, government could still tap from it’s huge revenue potentials.

Auta explained that the platforms provided huge employment opportunities and wide range of taxes that could be derived from the markets, if allowed to flourish.

“Manpower is needed to run the market, thereby creating employment opportunities.

“The staff are paid salaries and obliged to pay Personal Income Tax (PIT) which is a huge source of revenue to the government.’’

“Also, the organisations that run online-market platforms usually have physical presence where their goods are stocked for delivery to customers; government could charge ground rent on the land,’’ he said.

Financial experts in Port Harcourt expressed divergent views on the potentials and benefits of the platform to the nation`s economy.

Mr Emmanuel Jumbo, a management expert, said the system was not in the interest of the nation`s economy.

“It makes the buyer to pay more for any service.

“For instance, I ordered for a handset (phone) worth N28,000. I paid extra N2,000 as cost of delivery. It means that for anything you buy online, you pay extra.

“Meanwhile, the owner of the shop pays nothing as tax to government because he does not have a rented shop and operates from home,” he said.

However, Ephraims Okon, a stockbroker, said online shopping had brought a new dimension to commerce in the country.

He also said that the proprietors paid tax to government because they also bought such goods from somewhere and in the process, paid Value Added Tax.

Corroborating the position, the Director, Communications and Liaison Department, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Mr Emmanuel Obeta, said the operators were collecting agents, working on behalf of the Federal Government.

Obeta said that every item sold by the online shop was inclusive of VAT element of five per cent, which would be remitted to the FIRS.

“The five per cent VAT is attached to every product you buy so long as this goods is not VAT exempted.

“At the end of every month, these online shops which operate as registered businesses, when piling up their returns, remit the VAT to us (FIRS).” Obeta said.