Security and Communications for Healthcare Facilities
City Electric & Communications designs, installs, and maintains nurse call, intercom, video surveillance, and access control systems for clinics, medical offices, and assisted living facilities across Queens, the Bronx, Westchester, and Rockland County. We have been doing communications work in New York since 1983.
If you are a new operator who inherited a neglected or undocumented analog system, we start with an honest site assessment — we tell you what is worth keeping and quote only what actually needs to change.
Four Systems That Protect Patients, Staff, and Compliance
Healthcare facilities have security and communications needs that general commercial work does not — patient privacy, controlled access by staff role, staff emergency alerting, and entry management for visitors and vendors. These are the four system types we install and maintain. Because we install all of it, we can make these systems talk to each other instead of leaving you with four vendors and four service numbers.
Nurse Call Systems
Wired nurse call stations that allow patients to alert staff from the bed, bathroom, or corridor. We install, service, and integrate nurse call with your intercom and access control so staff can respond without crossing the building to unlock a door. Structured cabling is the tested backbone all of it rides on, which in an old facility is often part of what needs cleaning up first.
Video Surveillance
Camera coverage mapped to your facility's actual layout — waiting rooms, corridors, exits, and parking. We position cameras to protect patient privacy (no coverage of exam rooms or restrooms) while giving staff and management full visibility of common and high-risk areas. Remote viewing from phones and workstations. We handle new installs and analog-to-IP upgrades.
Access Control
Layered access for staff, contractors, and visitors — keypads, fob, or card readers on individual doors, with cloud or on-premises management. Restrict medication storage, server closets, and staff-only corridors independently of the main entrance. Tie access logs into your camera system for incident review.
Intercom & Entry Systems
IP video intercoms and door-release systems at main entrances, staff corridors, and pharmacy or supply rooms. Visitors buzz in from a panel; staff release the door from any station or mobile device. We replace dead analog buzzers with modern IP entry without running all-new conduit when the existing paths still work.
Built for new management inheriting a neglected system
This page is written for a specific person: the administrator, operator or facilities lead who just took responsibility for a healthcare building and is discovering, room by room, what the previous operator let slide. Analog nurse call with dead stations. Wander-management hardware that may or may not be armed. A surveillance system nobody can pull footage from. No documentation, no service history, no clear vendor.
We built our takeover process for exactly this situation. We don't assume the last team did it wrong, and we don't assume everything has to go. We come in, map what's actually installed, test what works, identify what's failing or unsupported, and give you a practical plan that fixes the urgent gaps first and phases the rest so you're not funding a total replacement in month one. Then we take it over and maintain it, so the systems have an owner again.
Nurse Call
The System You Can't Have Failing
Nurse call is the heart of a healthcare facility's communications: a resident or patient presses a button, and staff need to know where and how urgently, every single time. When that chain is unreliable — a station that doesn't register, a dome light that doesn't clear, an annunciator staff have learned to ignore — it stops being a call system and becomes a liability everyone's working around.
Older facilities often run analog nurse call that still functions but is aging out of parts and support. We assess what you have and lay out the real options: keep and maintain a sound analog system where replacement isn't justified, repair the specific failing points, or modernize to a system that can integrate with paging, wireless staff notification and reporting. Modern nurse call can log call and response times, which many operators want for staffing and quality review. We install and service these systems to support reliable staff notification and to work toward the applicable facility codes and standards for your building type — and we're clear about what the equipment does and doesn't do, rather than making guarantees that belong to your compliance officer, not your low-voltage contractor.
Our system takeover process is the backbone of what we offer healthcare operators, adapted for a live care environment where you can't just shut things off.
How a Healthcare System Takeover Works
Walk and Inventory
Test and Triage
Practical Plan
Take Over and Maintain
What We Can and Can't Promise
an honest word on compliance
We'll say this plainly because it matters in healthcare: we are a licensed low-voltage and security contractor, not your regulatory authority.
We install and maintain systems designed to support your facility's safety, communications and code obligations, and we build to the applicable standards for your building type.
We do not issue regulatory certifications or guarantee any survey outcome — that's the province of your compliance team and the inspecting agencies.
What we do promise is competent, code-aware installation, honest assessments, and systems that are documented and maintained so your team can operate and demonstrate them. In a field where overpromising is common, we'd rather tell you exactly where our responsibility ends.
What Healthcare Facility Systems Cost
Because these are takeover and modernization projects, cost depends far more on what you inherited than on a catalog.
A targeted stabilization — repairing failing nurse call stations, restoring access to a surveillance system, fixing dead intercoms and getting the plant documented — is a fraction of a full modernization and is often where we start.
A phased nurse call modernization, or a full multi-system upgrade across cameras, access control and intercom, scales with facility size, number of beds or rooms, and how much of the existing infrastructure is reusable.
What moves the price: the number of nurse call points and how much of the existing system is salvageable, camera count and coverage areas, how many controlled doors and egress points, the condition of the cabling backbone, and how much work must happen around a live, occupied facility.
Our approach keeps cost down by keeping what works — we don't lead with a rip-and-replace number. We walk the building first, then give you a plan you can phase.
Your Questions, Answered
Frequently Asked Questions About Healthcare Security & Communications
Can you take over and modernize an outdated nurse call system?
Yes — this is central to what we do. We assess your existing nurse call system, identify failing stations and unsupported parts, and lay out real options: maintain a sound analog system, repair specific failure points, or modernize to a system with paging, wireless staff notification and call-response logging. We service it to support reliable staff notification and work toward the applicable codes for your facility type. Book a nurse call assessment at 718-577-8339.Do you handle security, cameras and access control for healthcare facilities?
We do — nurse call, surveillance, access control and intercom, installed and integrated by one contractor. Cameras cover entrances, corridors and common areas with resident privacy in mind; access control secures patient floors, med rooms and records with an audit trail; and we can address wander-management and secured egress for memory-care areas. Having one team means the systems work together instead of leaving you four vendors. Ask what your building needs at 718-577-8339.We're new management inheriting a neglected system — where do you start?
We start by walking the building with your team and inventorying every nurse call station, camera, reader, intercom and panel — documenting what works, what's failing, and what's unsupported. Then we triage: urgent safety gaps first, keep what's sound, and phase the rest so you're not funding a total replacement in month one. You get a practical, prioritized plan, not a sales pitch. Schedule your walkthrough at 718-577-8339.Can you keep parts of the existing infrastructure to control cost?
Almost always, yes — keeping what works is our whole approach. We're brand-agnostic, so we can often service and extend the nurse call, cameras, cabling or access hardware you already have rather than forcing a wholesale swap. Where equipment is unsupported or genuinely failing, we'll tell you straight, but we don't lead with rip-and-replace. That's how a takeover stays affordable — ask how we'd phase yours at 718-577-8339.Do you service assisted living, clinics and medical offices in Queens and the Bronx?
Yes. We serve assisted living and senior-care facilities, clinics, medical offices and similar healthcare buildings across Queens, the Bronx and Westchester. We're a family-owned Queens shop, so we're close by for both the assessment and ongoing maintenance. Tell us your facility type and what you inherited at 718-577-8339.
Schedule a Healthcare Systems Walkthrough
If you've taken over a facility with aging nurse call, tired cameras or dead intercoms, start with a walkthrough. We'll inventory what you have, tell you honestly what's urgent and what can wait, and lay out a plan you can phase — then take it over and maintain it. Owner-inspected, from a Queens low-voltage and communications company that's been at this since 1996.
City Electric & Communications — NYS Licensed Alarm Installer #12000086085. Serving New York since 1983.
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