Enhanced Non-Lethal Security Blog

This post originally appeared on LinkedIn.

Security is a major concern for the hospital industry. With violent incidents on the rise, hospitals are looking for new ways to protect patients and staff from potential threats.

St. John's Hospital in Maplewood, Minn. is still reeling from an attack last fall that left four staff members injured. Video of the attack shows the panic that occurred when a man went on a rampage chasing workers with a metal object.

The commonly held belief that officers are safer when carrying fewer tools is a fallacy.

According to the National Institute of Justice’s study, Less Lethal Weapon Effectiveness, Use of Force, and Suspect & Officer Injuries, confrontations in which officers used less force than the suspects they were apprehending tended to last longer and lead to more injuries than confrontations that were subdued in the first iteration, or use of force. Hospitals that presume that tools add risk are actually pushing themselves into a higher risk category. Continue...

This is in response to Tom Smith's post, Hospital-Based Police, which was a response to The Downside of Hospital-Based Police published in Hospital Dive.

Every healthcare facility faces the question of "how do we best protect our people, patients, guests and institution?" But very few have the option - because of proximity, funding, or type of facility - to rely on local police or their own police force to secure their facility. The main difference between a hospital police officer and a hospital security officer is not who they are, but what they carry and the power to arrest.

It hit me recently while I watched one of our intense instructor certification courses. The moment in front of me had been five years in the making.

Use this data to get the tools you need.