It Will Never Happen Here, Right?

 

Most healthcare organizations and physician office practices consider security a low priority item. Many hospitals, nursing facilities, diagnostic imaging centers, assisted living centers, and freestanding ambulatory surgery centers share this attitude. Such attitudes are not shared by all in the healthcare community, especially those with buildings and parking garages located in well-known, high-crime areas.

Armed and unarmed security personnel patrol the perimeter of such locations and many buildings and garages are monitored via surveillance camera for potential security risks. Where risks are high, some healthcare organizations have embarked upon a visible presence of security even within key areas of a building.

For many years there was a sense that we are “okay” in rural and suburban healthcare settings. Many in small towns and cities shared that same sense of security across the land. Hence, security resources were not a top priority. When challenged the response was, “Do not worry. It will never happen here.” 

Times have changed. Post 9/11 incidents and discussions of bioterrorism have led some to realize the vulnerability of any healthcare facility as the site of a terrorist attack; healthcare facilities are the proverbial “soft target.”