Hospital Security News
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VOLUME II NUMBER
"Hospital
Security News" is SAI’s quarterly newsletter dedicated to helping hospitals
identify and manage their security risks, recognize organizational strengths
and weaknesses in physical protection and improve the personal security of
patients, staff and individuals that use their facilities. This edition features part 1 of a 2 part article
on the history of healthcare security that also appears in www.SecurityInfoWatch.com.
To receive a free copy of Hospital Security News, please write to: newsletter@saione.com. If you would like to contribute your personal
experiences, please write to Pam Carter, RN,
Hospital Security
Past, Present & Future – Part 1
On
The kidnappers were immediately arrested and
identified as the mother and father of the recovered, 4-day-old baby boy. In less
than a minute the mother and father were able to snatch their son from a
seventh-floor nursery, place him in a duffel bag, and run from the hospital.
A quick response by an alert staff set into
motion a well-rehearsed plan that lead to the immediate recovery of the missing
baby. Suspecting child abuse, the Department of Social Services had earlier
taken the couple's other children into custody. Believing their youngest son
would also be taken, the couple made a frantic attempt to steal their baby from
the hospital. The community was outraged that someone would enter a hospital
nursery with the intent to steal a baby. Decades ago this type of crime would
have been unheard of in a hospital setting.
PAST
Hospitals and churches have always been considered sacred,
at least as far back as I can remember. During my youth it was inconceivable
that anyone would violate the sanctity of a hospital and commit a crime, much
less steal a baby. Unfortunately, hospitals are no longer immune from criminal
assault. Crime continues to find its way into our hospitals at an alarming
rate. Why does this happen? Well, for one thing, hospitals are institutions of
tradition, and historically have resisted becoming bastions of security. The
emphasis has always been on providing open and friendly access to the public.
Part of a hospital's image has been to maintain an open door policy for
anyone and everyone that wished to visit a sick family member or love-one.
Heck, I remember when people used to go to the hospital just to see the babies.
There was nothing unusual at all for strangers to be seen on the baby floor.
PRESENT
As crime continues to grow in this country, we find we are
not safe in our businesses, or our schools, and now, even in our hospitals. All
of these places have become targets of criminal assault, and as a result, we
have been forced to increase security in every facet of our public and private
life to keep crime away. Most hospitals have been slow to follow suit. Even
today, many hospitals still have the same open door policy they have practiced
for decades.
Hospitals are targets because they are open to the public 24 hours a day,
seven days a week. These public access facilities have been conditioned over
the years to allow scores of people from all walks of life to enter these
institutions unchallenged. The definition of "public access" means
that all persons that enter a hospital seeking treatment, or to visit a
love-one, have the right to come and go as they please…and for many facilities,
this is still is the practice. This mind-set does not take into consideration
there are people in our society that hold no institution sacred, and their sole
reason to enter a hospital is to commit a crime against a person, or the
hospital, or both.
Unfortunately, because of the continuing criminal threat against hospitals,
it's no longer possible to practice an open door policy. For a hospital to be
safe in today's world, everyone coming into and going out of the facility has
to be identified and their access controlled. This is essential to prevent
unauthorized persons from entering a hospital to cause harm. Access control has
been extremely difficult in the past because of unrealistic and misinterpreted
fire codes. Strict enforcement of fire codes have prevented hospitals from
securing fire doors that lead to the outside. An unsecured fire door leading to
the outside provides an escape route for anyone that has committed a criminal
act against a hospital. After what seems like forever, old fire codes are now
being replaced with new codes which will now allow fire exits to be locked and
alarmed by a time-delay lock and alarm system. This type of
"lockdown" capability can prevent unauthorized persons from entering
or leaving the hospital undetected.
Another significant problem with providing security for older hospitals is
their inherently open design which makes them more difficult to secure.
Traditionally hospitals have been designed for patient and family convenience.
Security was never taken into consideration during the design and construction
phase. Because of this inherent problem, retrofitting security protection in
older facilities is a security nightmare, not to mention unbelievably
expensive.
FUTURE
Even though hospitals are faced with enormous downsizing
and decreasing revenues as a result of "Managed Care", hospitals do
have options. First, they can accept the risk and hope that nothing ever
happens. Or they can reduce the risk by developing a plan that incorporates
physical security, access control, and staff education into a state-of-the-art
security management program. The Joint Commission for the Accreditation of
Healthcare Organizations requires that organizations develop a written security
management plan as well as conduct annual security assessments to identify
security vulnerabilities.
Have You Conducted a Security
Assessment?
How secure is your facility? What security measures do you have in place to
insure that the security of your patients, staff and visitors meet National
norms, JCAHO and CMS Standards? What is your hospital doing to prevent infant
abductions and mother/baby mix-ups? How well does your hospital manage and
address emergency department, pharmacy, and pediatric security issues? If you
find these questions troubling you may need to invest in a security assessment.
The Purpose of the Hospital Security Assessment
The purpose of a hospital security assessment is to assist hospitals in the
protection of patients, employees, and visitors by identifying organizational
strengths and weaknesses in their physical protection and security practices.
The security assessment analyzes existing protocols, policies, and procedures,
in addition to evaluating physical security vulnerabilities and threats.
Findings are analyzed, evaluated, and written recommendations made to control
these threats.
All security management programs should be developed using the security
assessment concept. A hospital's program should be designed to teach,
implement, monitor, assess, and improve components that are part of the
hospital's existing program. Security is a system concept which requires
on-going training, corroboration, monitoring, and swift attention to problem
identification. The ultimate success of a security program will depend upon a
renewed commitment by hospital administration to support this most important
process.
The assessment should be designed to identify environmental deficiencies,
hazards, and unsafe practices. The professional security assessment can serve
as a tool in assisting hospitals in developing their own self-assessment. An
annual self assessment is required to meet the new JCAHO Standards, as well as
CMS Regulations. New standards require hospital to collect information about
security deficiencies and provide corrective action to improve the environment
of care.
The initial security assessment of a facility should be conducted by a
healthcare security professional with experience in evaluating hospital
security programs. Organizations should use only healthcare security
professionals with industry credentials and professional certifications. In
addition, the consultant should have hands-on experience as a manager,
director, or security administrator in the healthcare industry. A qualified
consultant can better evaluate your hospital's security management program
based on industry norms and the 2005-2006 JCAHO Environment of Care Standards,
as well as CMS's "Condition of Participation.
The security assessment should evaluate JCAHO standards as well as
compliance issues that require:
Security Management Plan
The written Security Management Plan (SMP) is designed to provide a
proactive approach in the protection of patients, visitor, staff, and health
system assets. This is accomplished by identifying security threats in all areas
of the facility which could have an adverse impact on persons and property.
This is accomplished through the security assessment which is also designed
to reduce the occurrence and severity of security incidents and promote
security education and training for hospital employees and staff.
[The next part of our series on
healthcare security will address the Security Management Plan, and will focus
on the identification of sensitive risk areas and deployment of security
technology based on risk assessment. Look for the second part to appear in
mid-September on the Healthcare Security section of SecurityInfoWatch.com.]
About the author: Jeff Aldridge is an
internationally recognized healthcare security consult and the Nation's
"Number One" expert on infant security. Jeff works with Fortune 500
Companies in the design and development of state-of-the-art security products
for the healthcare industry. He founded Security Assessments International (SAI
is online at www.saione.com)
in 1994 and continues to provide services for healthcare facilities throughout
the
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Future Newsletter Topics
State of
State-of-the-art protection for
Emergency Departments
Violence in
the workplace
Hospital
Lockdown – a coming requirement for hospitals.
Hospital Liability “When to hire a Security Expert”
Components of a “Self-Assessment”
Getting Ready to Implement HEICS
For further information contact:
Security
Assessments International,
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(919) 384-8299 (Office)
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(919) 309-0528 (Fax)
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SAI - ©April 2005