NOW IN PSOS
Newsletter Subscriber
HOSPITALS SECURITY MANAGEMENT - PSOS |
|
Hospitals and other healthcare centers are critical infrastructures that house a special needs population. Therefore, they possess special characteristics regarding building security management, medical and health-care staff, patients and their family/friends. Hospitals and healthcare centers contain goods that require protection. These goods can be material, such as medical or technological equipment, or chemical substances, as well as informative goods, such as a patient's medical history records. All of these are susceptible to loss or theft by employees and/or external personnel. There is no doubt, however, that the most important good that a hospital must protect is the people located on its grounds: patients, visitors, medical and administrative staff, support personnel and providers.
The security management plan and the evacuation protocol take into account the fact that at least part of the hospital's population requires the help of the professionals and healthcare providers during moments of crisis. In recent years, the number of verbal and physical violence cases carried out by a patient's family or friends has increased. This increase is due to both disappointment in the quality of services rendered to the patient, as well as frustration or helplessness in the face of a diagnosis that may be difficult to accept. Thus, the training of a hospital's security staff, as well as its medical and administrative personnel, is a crucial part of a hospitals integrated security management plan. The possibility of a mass terrorist attack is a real threat that must be taken into consideration. The physical weakness of those individuals located in a hospital, and the urgency with which they require attention, make this venue an especially attractive target for terrorists. As many hospital cases are time-sensitive, ambulances and other vehicles which approach hospital grounds should be inspected quickly but effectively. In various parts of the Middle East ambulances have already been used as car-bombs, or as a means to smuggle arms, terrorists or criminals. The hospital security management plan should consider all potential risks and situations regarding healthcare-specific threats and circumstances. Services: Security Crisis Management Training: Hospital Security Seminar |
