Journal of healthcare protection management : publication of the International Association for Hospital Security
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J Healthc Prot Manage · Jan 2009
Shifting liability? when police officers 'drop off' a person in the ER.
Police layoffs in the present economic downturn may increase a law enforcement practice of leaving before the persons they bring to hospital ERs are evaluated by the clinical staff. In effect, says the author, they are transferring liability for the patient to the hospital and its security staff. Many hospitals, he reports, are unaware of the liability risks they are undertaking in such situations.
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J Healthc Prot Manage · Jan 2009
Preventing hospital gun violence: best practices for security professionals to review and adopt.
Maintaining a safe, violence-free and therapeutic work place will become the greatest challenge for hospital security professionals, the author predicts, thanks to the surge in gun sales and the increase in gun violence. By recognizing this fact and adhering to best practices, we can greatly reduce the likelihood of gun violence in hospitals, he says. In this article, he presents 18 best practices that should be reviewed for offsetting and preventing such violence.
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The need to make emergency drills as realistic as possible presents problems in children's hospitals because of the difficulties that exist in recruiting and using children to act as casualties. In this article, the author describes one approach, the use of home school children and their parents, that proved highly successful in conducting a drill involving a school bus accident and possible chemical contamination.
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J Healthc Prot Manage · Jan 2008
Planning for the worst: one hospital's process for developing an 'active shooter on campus' policy.
Concerned about the potential for a Virginia Tech type tragedy at a hospital, the author contacted colleagues at other hospitals to inquire about their plans to reduce casualties in the event of an active shooter on campus, only to learn that there weren't any. Working with law enforcement, emergency management, risk management, and other interested officials and review committees, he developed his hospital's plan from scratch. Both the planning process and the plan itself are described in this article.
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Patient and Family Centered Care may be the model that will soon be standard throughout the healthcare industry, the author reports. It is critical, he says, that security directors not only embrace this care model, but that they take an active role in seeing that security is interwoven in the visitation and family presence policies that will be written during their institution's implementation phase. In this article, he describes how such a policy was implemented at a children's hospital and the positive results that have been attained.