All Entries in the "Security" Category

Don’t sacrifice patient comfort for drill realism

I was discussing emergency management scenarios involving a bomb threat and whether such exercises needed to include the movement of actual patients. [more]

Doctor stabbed: When something goes wrong, security feels the heat

Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston finds itself in the unenviable position of trying to deal with a pair of high-profile security incidents within the past nine days. [more]

Ultimate fighting star’s alleged assaults reinforce the danger of healthcare work

The subject of workplace violence in hospitals rose out of the weeds again yesterday with word that a Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) star had been arrested for allegedly assaulting three nurses at a hospital in Nevada on Tuesday.

Fighter Junie Browning, who was fired by UFC following his arrest, originally went to St. Rose Dominican Hospital’s [more]

Regulatory gray areas around this series of less-than-best practices

I was asked about a clean utility room that is also an electrical storage closet, which contains electrical panels, many wires, and oxygen cylinder storage against the wires.

It sounds like the organization had to make use of the available space for its network cabling, and while this is not an optimal environment of care practice, there’s no real regulatory language that precludes it. That said, there are a couple of things I would cite as “other environmental concerns” to consider: [more]

Think about steps to thwart not just infant abductions, but kidnappings of older kids

There is some indication that there is at least one Joint Commission surveyor who is very keen to see what processes are in place to avoid potential abductions of children in the 12+ age range (I tend to think of them as adolescents as a general descriptor).

While environment of care standard EC.02.01.01, EP 9 does specifically mention [more]

H1N1 call brings up hospital access control, sick employees

I listened in on a CMS open forum conference call this afternoon about H1N1 preparedness in healthcare facilities, and the topic of infection control in hospitals came up.

A CDC representative noted that [more]

Security best practices noted at the ASHE conference

I just sat in on a great session by hospital security expert Fred Roll of Healthcare Security Consultants. Here are a few tidbits from his presentation: [more]

Walking free and clear into a locked behavioral unit

I couldn’t help but think of all the security officers out there when I heard a story from a friend over the weekend who went to visit a patient at a locked behavioral unit in a suburban hospital.

As my friend approached the unit, someone coming out of it held open the door for her, so [more]

Generic ID badges are okay for medical students in your hospital

Some of my colleagues and I were talking recently about what to do with ID badges for medical students who are only on site for a week or two.

You could make up a batch of generic student badges without [more]

Michael Jackson’s death forces hospital into a lockdown

Hi folks, it’s Scott Wallask. I was chatting by e-mail with Vernon Goodwin, security director at UCLA Health System in Los Angeles, about the hundreds of people that gathered outside UCLA Medical Center after Michael Jackson’s body arrived at the hospital last Thursday.

Goodwin told me the medical center [more]