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Accept the reality that there will be times that people who should not be in your hospital get in anyway. Most hospitals do not have hardened perimeters with strict control of ingress and egress. In fact hospital perimeters are rather porous. Is it cost effective to place a security officer at every door? Of course not.
If security personnel, reception personnel, doors, gates, cameras, and alarms, are the first line of defense, what are the secondary and tertiary lines of defense?
The answer is all employees. Security Awareness Programs help protect people and property through employee involvement.
All employees must be actively involved in the security program. If the involvement of neighbors watching out for neighbors can reduce crime where we live, why not bring this strategy onto the work-place? An effective Security Awareness Program can reduce reliance on security FTEs as well as cameras and other security technologies. Clearly this program will enhance the impact of security methodologies already in place and control security costs.
If one were to examine the breakdown that facilitated the abduction of an infant from a hospital, one would likely find that the technology did not fail but rather security procedures and clinical personnel failed. In fact, in some cases, over-reliance on security technology may have lulled the clinical staff into complacency. An electronically controlled door is useless if employees allow themselves to be coat-tailed by third parties through a controlled access point.
Hospitals must be vigilant for the potential for domestic disputes spilling into the work-place. These disputes may involve the spouses of employees, and patients, and the parents of children. When a domestic partner is bent on doing harm, very little will dissuade them. These partners often know the layout of the hospital and understand hospital routines. They know how and where to get in and how and where to escape. Unless your hospital can afford to put a security officer at every door, they will get in.
This is why all employees must form a secondary line of defense and even a tertiary line of defense. Some hospitals have policies that at least give lip service to the notion that all employees should be vigilant for suspicious individuals. Sometimes they are asked to challenge suspicious persons found wandering about. However the problem is that employees are never trained in what "suspicious" looks like nor are they trained as to how and whom they should challenge. The result is that employees avoid confrontation and do nothing. These weaknesses become blatantly obvious when a lawsuit is filed and the discovery process begins to scrutinize your access management plan. But then it's too late.
If your hospital does not have a Security Awareness Program, start one today. If your hospital does not have the expertise to start a Security Awareness Program, go out and get the expertise.
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