Indiana hospital moves toward police-force security Share on emailShare on twitterShare on facebookShare on digg| More Sharing ServicesMore Security director champions statewide change by: Amy Canfield - Thursday, January 23, 2014 FORT WAYNE, Ind.—After Thomas Rhoades retired from the local police department here and took over security at Parkview Health five years ago, he had one main question. That question led to research, years of successful legislative work and a big change in the way security will be handled in the future at Parkview’s seven hospitals. “Almost from Day One, as I began to get my feet wet in health care, I started to think about the number of acts of violence that have occurred in health care settings—active shooters and other acts of violence,” Rhoades told Security Director News. The facilities had modern “traditional physical security” in place that was working effectively, including hundreds of surveillance cameras and other technology. Rhoades’ focus went to the security officers. “I started to ask the question, what do we expect from our security staff in the way of protecting our patients, our visitors, our co-workers, nurses and physicians and vendors on our campuses? And, are those expectations realistic in light of today’s acts of violence that we’re seeing across the country,” he explained. His perspective as a longtime law enforcement office was useful. “I think I was able to identify some of the risks hospitals face, more than someone who has been in health care security for their whole life, because they may not see some of the risks that are present,” such as gang violence on the streets that often continues in emergency rooms, active shooters, people who would do most anything to get narcotics, and domestic violence that often spills over into workplaces, he said. He decided expectations for his hospitals’ security staff were, indeed, unrealistic. So he started doing some research. His conclusion was that his...
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 22:40:03 +0000
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