Page 20 - Campus Security & Life Safety, March/April 2022

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Hospital Security Challenges & Solutions During the Pandemic
20 campuslifesecurity.com | MARCH/APRIL 2022
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Front-line workers—specifically nurses, doctors and other clinicians—remain at the forefront of our collective conscious as we mark the two- year anniversary of the global COVID-19 pandemic making its way to the U.S. The reverberations of the pandemic have affected each and every corner of the hospital, from cafeteria workers to administrative professionals and security teams. And the omicron variant has taxed workforces like none before it.
COVID-19 and Hospital Security
From the start of the pandemic, security departments were called to implement new protocols and processes almost overnight. Limiting visitors meant turning away well- meaning and concerned family members. Enforcing masking policies and taking tem- peratures were new twists in a security offi- cial’s job. And all along, state and federal guidance around masking and social dis- tancing fluctuated, creating friction within the community and requiring no small amount of flexibility and agility among secu- rity staff. Not surprisingly, a fall 2021 survey by National Nurses United found 31% of hospital RNs reported an increase in work- place violence, up from 22% in March.
Things got increasingly complicated last year with the rollout of vaccines. There were outdoor vaccination sites to be set up and secured from a traffic flow and crowd per- spective. Protecting the actual vaccine ship- ments and their subsequent (and complicat- ed) storage fell to security staff. Then came the need for crowd control, as people clam- ored to get that first dose. By year’s end, the scenario shifted to protests over vaccine mandates, a challenge that has lingered on for months.
With Houston Methodist Hospital being at the forefront of the vaccination efforts since the very beginning of the pandemic— as well as being the first hospital to mandate the vaccine—it has been the target of all kinds of threats and protests from individu- als who disagree with the hospital’s position. For that reason, “over the past two years, while those evergreen threats never waned,