Healthcare Security Research Paper

While an active shooter occurrence in a healthcare setting is rare, the overall prevalence and complexity is steadily on the rise. There have been many studies performed researching the rate of occurrence, location, personnel affected, and possible motive. When it comes to an active shooter attack, it is difficult to prevent, so the focus of education should be placed on anticipation and preparedness for such an event.

Patient safety is number one in hospitals. Every staff member that comes into contact with a patient should always have the question, “Will the patient be safe?” in the back of

Continual training is needed not only to educate personnel but also to remind personnel that although coming to work may be a daily routine for them, a trip to the hospital for many patients is far from ordinary. The security guard who was more concerned with the position of the car and talking to his buddy, than why the people in the car had drove up to the emergency entrance in the first place was mind boggling. With the exception of our initial phone call to the hospital, the security guard experience was our first impression as we entered the hospital. The actions of the security guard, the orderly's remarks, and the inexperienced resident set the tone for that first day's experience.

In reality, there are limited places that violence cannot happen, however, we are often surprised by some of the places violence does take place. One of the places many don’t expect violence to take place is in the hospital. Hospitals are designed to promote safety and provide medical care and nursing treatment for sick or injured people. Unfortunately, on January 12, 2016 a hospital security guard and a police officer endured near-fatal shootings by a drug-affected patient in Nepal. Rachel Olding, the author of an article written February 4, 2016 points out some concerns, thoughts, and ideas for improvement taken from hospital workers who have seen and experienced hospital violence firsthand. Hospitals need to be a place of safety for their patients, staff, and visitors.

As unfortunate as this may be, many companies are in the healthcare industry for no other reason than to turn a profit. While this doesn’t mean a patient will receive inadequate care, it is hard for employees to buy into the culture of “Radical Caring Love” when the major concern is always the bottom dollar. When employees do not buy in to the culture of healing then they become unconcerned if a loud phone is constantly ringing, or if a another nurse’s patient has had a call light on for ten minutes. Some other obstacles would be location and age of the building. Many inner-city hospitals are located in the heart of some very unsavory neighborhoods, and while everyone deserves the same quality of care it is hard to promote a healing environment when patient family members are afraid to get out of their locked car. Not to mention that many of these buildings are old and lack advances in technology that allows a patient to feel safe and secure about the care they are receiving and keeps them waiting on tests to be performed of results to be given.

Many healthcare facilities now find themselves in an almost paradoxical predicament: inherently insecure and complex systems are required to be supported to maintain quality of healthcare, while security by mandate must be implemented and insured, (Mulch, 2004).#

In previous years safe staffing has been a concern in Massachusetts hospitals. In a survey conducted by the

Every patients main concern when going to a hospital is to get a surgery to fix a problem that they have, or to receive prescriptions for illnesses and diseases. But a factor most probably are not worried about when they go to a hospital is how they are being treated. Doctors already have a difficult task to perform, but overcrowding the hospitals will cause them to be busy and possibly conduct their job with out the amount of care that is required. Giving out prescriptions in a hospital could also be effected. Patients vital medicine could be mixed up with someone else’s and cause even more harm.

Entering the medium security hospital would seem like a total surrender of freedom; all sharp objects were taken away, phone calls were limited, and leaving the

Patient safety is a priority in health care systems, it minimizes incidences, maximizes recovery from, and adverse events.

Adequate nurse staffing is clearly a crucial element in safe, effective hospital care. A 2011 study by nurse researchers concluded that adding more nurses to a unit markedly improves patient outcomes and safety in hospitals (Griffith, Ball, Murrel, Jons & Rufferty,

It is the medical office specialist duty to protect all PHI by keeping it private and secure.

In today’s world violence can be expected anywhere at any time. This includes what was considered at one time a low risk area, the medical facility. Today the incidence of violence is increasing. There are two types of violence the first is lateral violence or aggression which is amongst hospital or medical personal. The other is external factors consisting of patients or visitors instituting violence or aggression among themselves or against healthcare workers. This is known as a code grey in my facility and all male staff not currently engaged in patient care are supposed to respond.

It was Saturday night while I was just starting on my shift and getting the handover report from the outgoing nurse, when the public address system announced a “Code Black”. A code black in the hospital setting means that there is an emergency situation involving personal threats to the safety of staff and the public including assaults, confrontation, hostage situation but mostly threats of personal injury or attack. The hospital is in partial lockdown and nobody can get in and out for fear of violent retribution from both the perpetrators and victims’ family; the patient being brought in the emergency room usually with stab injuries or gunshot wounds. It has been a fairly normal occurrence nowadays that nobody was unfazed with the announcement. We have seen recently on the news about the Orlando massacre where 49 people were killed and 53 injured due to gun violence influenced by a terrorist intent. If the congress will not do any substantial changes with the law and its implementation to curb this violent act of terrorist and mentally deranged individuals, then it wont be long before it will reach an epidemic proportion that it can happen to us in our own backyard. It is happening now in our community, sporadic incidence as it seems, it is very concerning and cannot be ignored. Because a lot of people, both men, women and children are dying everyday from gun violence, and the current

Health Care security in the United States has been part of the national culture for over a century, but many companies have struggled with the transition to electronic records. In the early 1900s, many hospitals hired a security guard to look over their facilities. Their primary role was to safeguard the hospital from fire. At that point many of the police patrols were done on foot and most cities had their officers incorporate hospitals into their daily rounds. In the 1950s there was a culture shift and security coverage of hospitals became less of a community responsibility. Off-duty policemen were increasingly hired for additional