Security at Hospitals

While visiting a friend at a hospital this week, I was reminded of how easy it is for anyone to enter a hospital.  I didn’t have to sign in, get checked, or say whom I was visiting. I could have walked into anyone’s room while no one even knew I was in the building.  Granted, the last thing people want to deal with is being hassled when they enter a hospital, especially since many are visiting a sick relative or friend, and have other things on their mind.  While I appreciated not having to be patted down or take my shoes off for a metal detector, there was something a little too free and open about the situation. Somehow I would have felt better if I was, at the very least, required to sign in.

Other businesses and large facilities take simple precautions with visitors.  Many require them to sign in and sometimes even wear a visitor badge. Although this practice may also be done to aid them with their operations, it is also a first line of defense for the safety and security of the people in the building.  Is the visitor signing in acting suspicious?  Do they have the name of the person that they are supposedly visiting?  Are they carrying something questionable?  In addition, there are simple databases that can be scanned to see if someone is wanted or has caused trouble.  Signing in also provides a record of who was in the building with a time frame. There is a front desk person or secretary there anyway, so what harm would there be there asking visitors to sign in?  This does not discriminate against or violate anyone’s rights. 

Schools are also very diligent nowadays with student and staff safety.  In the wake of recent school violence, entry doors are now locked during the day, lockdown drills are held, and other precautions are taken to ensure everyone’s safety.  One thing many schools do universally is have visitors sign in.  This simple step is easy to implement and execute and does not offend anyone.  It assures that the visitor has a reason to be there.

According to security experts, incidents of angry patients returning to get revenge are increasing.  Last year, the Joint Commission — a nonprofit organization that accredits U.S. hospitals — reported that since 1995, there have been 256 assaults, rapes or homicides at hospitals and health-care facilities. Of those, 110 have occurred since 2007.  This fact was taken from the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.  Patients in hospitals are more vulnerable and less able to physically defend themselves against an intruder. And what about the stories of people entering hospitals and stealing babies?  Thank goodness these scenarios are still rare, but they do happen.

Not to mention, hospitals have drugs…lots of them.  They are supposed to be locked up but even so, what better place is there for a person desperate for drugs to break into than a hospital?  Hospitals have many rooms and spaces to avert discovery. 

When I was in Santa Monica Hospital when my first son was born, I was obsessing the first night that my new baby might be crying in the nursery or worse.  I rang the bell for the nurse to bring him to me and what was probably 15 minutes seemed like an hour of waiting.  I kept him there the rest of the night.  My worst fear was that he would be taken. Yes, I know my hormones were probably in overdrive, but then again, there was no security in place to stop this from happening.  Nurses have things to do and can’t keep an eye on every patient every second of the day.

Maybe some hospitals do have a sign in policy, but the ones I have been to lately do not.  I would feel better staying in a hospital that did not let visitors come in the door and wander all over.  Let’s start with a sign in sheet and visual screening.  Would you object to that?