Statistics show that violence in the healthcare industry is devastatingly widespread. And unfortunately, it is only growing worse.
Read this case study on our award winning access control project.
For effective security, healthcare facilities need to be able to control the physical environment. Training is a critical element in reducing the risk of workplace violence and protecting staff. Security staffing is an expensive but critical element to a successful healthcare security program.
BPS understands the vast complexity of healthcare safety and can help you to protect your patients, visitors and staff. Let us help you address your security needs with key services:
- Security risk assessment
- Security system design, review and construction administration
- Crisis management planning
- Security training, de-escalation and violence prevention
- Healthcare staffing analysis
Ask The Security Expert
BPS President and Certified Security Consultant Frank Pisciotta is ready to point you in the right direction. With over 3 decades of experience in security consulting, Frank has helped thousands of corporations, manufacturers, governments and healthcare facility managers keep their people and products safe.
Frank will personally respond to your questions within 24 hours. Ask The Expert and start Eliminating Crime Before It Happens.
Knowledgeable Healthcare Security Experts
Healthcare facilities require special consideration when it comes to security. Have you conducted a proper risk assessment in the past five years using an outside expert?
BPS has the expertise to help you because we know the challenges you face:
- There are more violent attacks against healthcare workers than all other worker categories combined. Can you control your physical environment and limit access or lockout innocent persons in the event of a serious security incident occurring in your facility? Our experts can work with you to identify gaps in your security and find strategies to mitigate vulnerabilities.
- Hospital emergency departments reflect the communities served. Acute behavioral health, victims of violent crimes, overcrowding and stressful conditions create hourly challenges. Is your staff training what it needs to be? BPS will evaluate your current training efforts and enhance de-escalation efforts and response to serious security incidents.
- Patient restraints are required daily or multiple times each day at many hospitals. Hospital shootings are up 88% from 2009 to 2017. If you are treating forensic patients like most hospitals, you are at a higher risk of an armed encounter – one study indicates that half of hospital shootings result from an adversary getting a weapon from a member of the hospital’s protective force. At the same time, there are many low-risk tasks that are typically performed by the security department, so how does a hospital administrator apply the appropriate resources to these complex tasks based on risk? BPS professionals can help by conducting a study to properly evaluate staffing levels and staffing types to align security resources with risk.
We are experts at the complicated world of healthcare facility security. Let us help you. Contact us today.
Healthcare Security Services
We are ready to help you prepare your staff and site to de-escalate and deal with disturbances before they elevate to assaultive behavior, while keeping the healthcare experience accessible to those who need it most.
Contact us for key security services:
- A security risk assessment will make sure to only apply solutions at your healthcare facility with the appropriate threat-based justification provided by a formal risk analysis.
- Security system design services can evaluate your current security programs, identify specific ways to improve your operations to address the risks you know about as well as those you don’t, and guide you through the steps for changes you want to make.
- Our construction administration and technical review services can keep you focused on healthcare while still prioritizing best security options.
- Best practices in your security design mean you can expect to not only meet Joint Commission expectations but also use crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED), taking advantage of the physical environment to manage access and activities. Elevator and stairwell management play a critical role in effective access control. If these issues are not addressed properly early in design, you will be looking at expensive retrofits when you decide that you need to have effective access control.
- Emergency preparedness services will help you plan and prepare for when the stakes are high.
Whether your healthcare organization is large or small, our professionals can help protect you against violence against staff, theft, drug diversion, and other crimes. Just as medical doctors evaluate patients to develop a proper diagnosis before beginning treatment, BPS will only apply security solutions with the appropriate threat-based justification provided by a formal risk analysis.
You have a mission to deliver great healthcare by enabling your care providers to provide patient care, not be distracted because they do not feel safe at work. Our security experts are just as committed to helping clients eliminate crime before it happens.
Let’s work together to meet both goals. Contact BPS to learn how.
Healthcare Security Resources
The article “Unique and Developing Security Challenges in Healthcare” – by Frank Pisciotta & Bryan Warren, CHPA, CPO-1 (SecurityInfoWatch.com, March 9, 2020) addresses how hospitals are challenged to assure staffing adequacy in the face of increasing risk.
Did you know that stats show that healthcare workers suffer nearly as many violent attacks as all other business sectors combined? Healthcare security is one of the most challenging missions, and a look at recent trends reveals it is getting more difficult every year. This article focuses on issues including access control, weapons screening and command and control, which are key goals considering emerging risk trends. “Risks on the Rise in Healthcare Sector” – article by Frank Pisciotta (SecurityInfoWatch.com, June 17, 2019)
Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Health Care & Social Service Workers. This informational booklet is written and distributed by OSHA and provides a general overview of guidelines intended to help employers establish and adopt effective workplace violence prevention programs for their facilties.
For Healthcare Professionals: Guidelines on Prevention of and Response to Infant Abductions – This document presents guidelines by The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children that are intended to provide, in part, security strategies and protocols to support and enhance The Joint Commission and IAHSS security guidelines.
Weapons Use Among Hospital Security Personnel – Research conducted and published by The International Healthcare Security & Safety foundation.