Active Security at Healthcare Facilities
Healthcare Facility Safety is a Multi-Faceted Issue
Safety and security issues must be considered systemically. There are a myriad of variables that come into play in a healthcare environment. Safety is not relegated to one problem with a corresponding safeguard; it functions as an active system.
Secure Design
An urban hospital, for example, might create an outer ring with bollards and rails that appear decorative but are strong enough to stop a vehicle from crashing into an entrance.
Although, in the past, security cameras were typically used to investigate events after the fact, emerging intelligent video technology is beginning to give cameras a preventive capability. Installed together with surveillance cameras set high on the building, these software applications are capable of looking for problems an abandoned package, fight on the street or an explosion around the hospitals exterior.
A suburban hospital may create a secure exterior setting with landscaping, fencing, lights and cameras.
Security concerns influence the placement and design of parking decks and lots. Parking facilities require adequate lighting and cameras that can be seen, for the sake of deterrence. Some facilities reserve designated secure parking areas at night, when there are fewer visitors, to provide a safer walk to and from buildings.
The building envelope serves as another security barrier. Depending on the environment, intrusion alarms and an electronic access control system can protect doors closed to the public. Some businesses are even making use of things like these A&D Door Systems to help improve their security when it comes to things like keeping certain doors closed to the public. Windows may also be equipped with intrusion alarms.
Controlled Access
Higher levels of controlled access to hospitals are also being implemented at many facilities for example some are installing Daosafe turnstiles to make sure only authorised individuals are allowed to enter. In urban hospitals, controlled visitor access into the building is the norm. Oftentimes, controlled access includes metal detectors. Standard practice requires staff to wear identification badges and to question anyone without a badge.
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At Miami Childrens Hospital, visitor access is carefully controlled to protect young patients. Visitors must check in and show a valid drivers license. The hospitals visitor access control system also requires a badge with a photo of the visitor that is created on site. In some extreme cases, visitors could access the hospital with an alternative photo identification such as an IdGod photo ID, however, it would also require additional permissions along with the security badge.
Inside the secure perimeter, automated inventory control systems, such as Pyxis or Omnicell, serve as a deterrent to theft and waste.
These systems require staff to enter a patient number when removing medicine from a cabinet. They are particularly useful in emergency rooms, where EMTs may grab handfuls of supplies to restock their vehicle in anticipation of the next call, and can result in substantial annual cost savings.
Government regulations call for strict security to protect patient information as well as the hospitals financial information. Electronic access control systems are being installed to protect rooms where data is stored. Inside, cameras provide a second layer of protection.
Preventative Measures
More inner-city hospitals are using metal detectors and X-ray machines to prevent people from carrying guns, knives and other weapons into the hospital. Depending on the facility, screening equipment might be located at both the main entrance and the emergency room entrance.
Alongside this, many healthcare facilities across the country continue to use security guards, that may have been hired from professional companies like Iron Horse Security. Their CEO, Robin St Martin (check out Robin St Martin’s tweets here), has stated that his company has the mission of being able to help keep organizations and its employees and visitors free from harm. This is essential when it concerns the healthcare industry whose workers strive to save the lives of every individual who walks through the door, not put them in harm’s way.
The main Johns Hopkins Medical Center campus in Baltimore uses this kind of equipment at exits to prevent people from carrying equipment and unauthorized drugs out of the hospital.
Planners and designers must also consider protecting staff and physicians from patients and visitors. Inner-city hospitals must deal with the threat of gangs attempting to finish an unsuccessful murder by charging into an emergency room where the victim is being treated. Proper entry-point design can help protect hospital personnel by separating them from people coming through the door.
Enclosed reception, registration and triage areas with bulletproof glass can provide secure separation. While hospital administrators often resist such designs, receptionists and nurses have begun to ask for it.
Examination and patient rooms throughout the hospital, from the emergency room to the inpatient tower and the outpatient wing, can also be outfitted with an eye to security. Fixed and moveable furnishings, counters and sinks can be arranged so that the physician or nurse is closer to the door and can get out quickly if necessary.
This layout is often favored in psychiatric settings. Panic buttons in appropriate locations in the emergency room and exam rooms can provide another layer of security.
In pediatrics and OB/GYN units, hospitals are installing radio frequency identification systems with sensors that follow radio signals emitted by bracelets worn on babies and young children. When a child leaves his or her assigned area, an alarm will alert staff and security. The system then tracks the movement of the child throughout the building.
Safe Design
Single-handed room design for inpatient rooms, operating rooms and exam rooms has been implemented widely for safety considerations to prevent errors by staff and physicians.
Other design features focus on life safety. Fire alarm and sprinkler systems, for instance, must fit the facility. Elevators must shut down when a fire alarm goes off and stairwells must facilitate safe evacuations with adequate lighting.
Infection control is also a key safety element of mechanical system design in hospitals. Inpatient units typically include isolation rooms for patients who need to be protected from infection, or who might pose the threat of infecting others.
Different types of isolation rooms deal with these problems. In the emergency room, for example, tuberculosis is a paramount concern. Patients who might be infected are placed in rooms with negative pressure. Air pressure inside the room is lower so air from the hospital flows into the room but not back out, preventing the tuberculosis from getting out.
HIV-AIDS patients require the opposite. Since their immune systems are compromised, their isolation rooms must protect them with positive air pressure, which causes air to flow out of the room.
Isolated mechanical systems also play a role in safe design. In the event of a terrorist attack with a biological weapon or infectious outbreak, patients suffering from a dangerously infectious agent would flood the hospital grounds seeking emergency help.
The first layer of protection is provided with space for an outside triage area that is housed in portable facilities to keep infectious patients out of the hospital. In developing the hospital site plan, designers reserve space adequate for this kind of triage task outside the emergency room.
However, during the confusion caused by a disaster, no one can guarantee that infected patients wont get into the building. As a second line of defense, the overall mechanical design should isolate the emergency room from the main hospital.