How K&A engineered the RUSH Health credential migration for interoperable access, phased facility upgrades, and ongoing in-house badge production.
Rush Health needed to move to a more secure credential technology but did not want to disrupt employee access or replace every existing reader across its multiple hospitals.
Across four major hospitals and multiple clinics in the Chicago area, approximately 15,000 employees rely on their ID badges for access to the facilities and systems they frequent daily. Many work across multiple locations, making interoperability essential: one credential needs to support each employee’s authorized privileges throughout the entire healthcare network.
The challenge was that RUSH’s facilities were not starting from the same place. Two required comprehensive access control upgrades, while other locations had established systems and readers that needed to remain in service. The wrong technology decision could introduce read conflicts, unnecessary replacement costs, or problems for employees moving between facilities.
K&A has been suppling RUSH’s access cards, printers, and consumables since 2011, including support for an earlier rebadging project. This time, RUSH turned to K&A for its broader experience in healthcare credentialing and enterprise-wide migration. What began as a supplier relationship had grown into a trusted source of technical guidance.
“Our belief is that collaboration is the best approach for a successful end-client project deployment. Offering our professional services as a non-competitive extension of your team, we provide custodial services that serve as the conduit between the access control manufacturer, security integrator, downstream vendor, and the end client.”
Collaboration is the best approach
K&A brought together RUSH, security consultant AEI, and enterprise security integrator Johnson Controls (JCI) to establish a workable path forward. Drawing on experience with similar migrations, K&A evaluated the proposed credential technologies against RUSH’s existing reader environment and recommended HID Seos® dual-technology cards to avoid potential read conflicts while supporting the transition to secure credentials.
K&A then worked with HID to engineer custom, factory-configured readers with client-specific mobile keys and controlled technology settings, helping protect the readers from unauthorized reconfiguration and technology downgrade attack. Instead of leaving configuration decisions to individual installers in the field, JCI could order the specified pre-configured readers, install them, and move on efficiently.
The team also coordinated credential engineering and field testing while preparing RUSH to keep badge production in-house. K&A supplied and supported six ID card printers, giving RUSH the infrastructure needed to produce its own secure credentials throughout the migration and beyond.
Unified Access Control System
K&A helped engineer interoperable credentials for RUSH’s enterprise-wide Software House C•CURE 9000 access control environment, supporting consistent credential use across facilities at different stages of migration.
Major Hospitals
K&A helped establish one interoperable credential strategy across RUSH’s healthcare network, accommodating comprehensive upgrades at two facilities while allowing other locations to transition using compatible existing infrastructure.
Employees
The new credential strategy supports authorized access for personnel working across multiple RUSH locations, without requiring every facility to replace its existing readers at once.
ID Card Printers
K&A supplied and supported the printers RUSH needed to produce its own ID badges in-house — extending the relationship beyond migration planning into ongoing credential operations.
Whether you’re upgrading a single facility or coordinating an enterprise-wide transition, K&A brings the technology expertise, credential engineering, and collaborative support to help make it work.
