Page 58 - Security Today, September 2019

Mitigating Workplace Violence Modern technology is able to help hospitals manage safety
BIy Noah Reiter
n January, nurse practitioner Carlie Beaudin was beaten to death in a parking garage at the Milwaukee-area hospital where she worked to save lives. The incident captured national headlines, not only for the brutal nature of the attack but also because it was caught on a live surveillance feed no one was watching. Fol-
lowing her death, nurses and other workers at Carlie’s hospital said they had long worried about their safety, which was often jeopardized by working late shifts and being forced to park in poorly lit garages and faraway lots—none of which had security staff.
This tragedy is just one of many recent examples that point to a major challenge faced by hospitals and healthcare organizations today: keeping employees safe. It’s a challenge that organizations across all industries face, but it is particularly complicated for hospi- tals. They operate 24/7, often across distributed campuses and with a transient population of patients and visitors.
Addressing safety and security issues is, of course, not a new issue for hospitals. To ensure continual patient care and remain compliant with regulations, hospitals have well-documented security protocols and deploy technology to ensure those can be executed smoothly, from cybersecurity solutions on the digital side to video surveillance
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and door scanners, among other tools, on premises.
But many of these solutions weren’t developed with an eye toward
workplace violence and safety concerns that are now such a pressing issue. These measures also overlooked the problems faced by employ- ees outside the walls of the main facility, including those of visiting nurses, case workers or other staff members who report to satellite sites or treat patients at their homes.
Understanding the Risks in the Hospital Environment
Although the healthcare sector makes up just 9 percent of the overall U.S. workforce, it experiences nearly as many violent injuries as all other industries combined, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report.
And those injuries aren’t caused merely from slips and falls or other mishaps. Injuries caused by workplace violence in the health- care industry have skyrocketed, growing 110 percent in private hospi- tals over the course of a decade, the BLS said.
This increase can be attributed to several key factors, including longer wait times for patients seeking treatment, budget cuts result-
HOSPITAL SECURITY
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