The Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital is facing a $50,000 fine after a state oversight agency reviewed the circumstances surrounding an infant kidnapping from the hospital’s Mother Infant Unit in 2009.
Keeping staff and patients safe while maintaining an open facility is just one of the challenges facing security teams in hospital and healthcare settings. Security and SDM find out more from both ends of the syringe: healthcare end users and integrators. Diane Ritchey, editor of Security, and Laura Stepanek, editor of SDM, recently spoke with end users and integrators in healthcare security about what drives this important market.
Rockford Memorial Hospital, Rockford, ILL, the community’s first hospital, opened its doors in 1885. Over the years, the organization built its reputation on its quality doctors, leading-edge technology, comprehensive services and outstanding facilities.
California now requires that hospitals conform to minimal security standards by laying out required guidelines. This law is confined to the state of California, but it has national implications. Some hospital security executives believe that it is just a matter of time before these standards begin to appear in Environment of Care Standards required by the Joint Commission.
Hospitals and healthcare facilities need to professionally manage guests entering the lobby, account for who is entering the facility and screen for unwanted visitors.
Getting a physical can do wonders for people and hospitals. William Nesbitt, CPP, president of Security Management Services International, Inc., has great advice on his Web site http://www.smsiinc.com.
The University of Colorado Hospital, located east of Denver in Aurora, CO, is one of the leading hospitals in the nation. In 2011, UCH was ranked as the best hospital in the Denver metropolitan area and in the top 10 nationally for Best Medical Schools: Primary Care by US News and World Report.