Setting aside coronavirus and pandemic-related safety issues, hospital security, and healthcare worker safety trends are still alarming on their own. According to the latest edition of the AFL-CIO’s annual worker safety report, Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, “workplace violence is a growing and serious threat, particularly to …
In early 2019, The Annals of Emergency Medicine published an essay in which Dr. Amy Costigan recounted being punched in the face by a patient’s mother after delivering bad news. The violence itself is tragic—and so are the unintended consequences: As Dr. Costigan later told HealthLeaders Media, “workplace violence is …
In a recent Campus Safety webcast focused on hospital security Ben Scaglione (director of healthcare security for DVS, a leading security consulting and engineering firm) noted that “since security isn’t a profit center, it’s important to get it right from the start.” Nonetheless, he’s found that healthcare organizations consistently make …
TSS has always been focused on providing security solutions to better protect our frontline healthcare workers. Currently, the most immediate threat to their safety is exposure to COVID-19 as they work to save lives around the country. Now more than ever, we at TSS would like to express our continued …
HIPAA and data breaches grab the headlines when it comes to healthcare facility security. But an increasing number of healthcare facilities are focusing on their physical security. Total Security Solutions sees an increasing number of inquiries from a wide array of healthcare providers: pharmacies, mental health providers, networks of family planning clinics, …
Designing physical security for healthcare facilities is a delicate balancing act. Even more so than usual, administrators, workers, and clients are sensitive to the aesthetics, as well as their safety and privacy. “This is often already a tense situation,” says Total Security Solutions CEO Jim Richards. “People are often nervous if …
Without a doubt, healthcare facilities are among the most dangerous workplaces in the United States. Healthcare workers are about 25% more likely to be injured on the job than the average American worker, and are especially likely to suffer violent assaults while on the job. But violence in healthcare doesn’t …
According to a 2015 report from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, “Pharmacy robbery is a serious and growing problem. … [R]obberies of pharmacies in the United States increased 82 percent from 2006 to 2011.” The report’s authors hasten to add that this phenomenon is …
When you consider the physical and psychological condition of many patients in a healthcare facility, and the stresses that staff are under, it’s easy to understand why the industry experiences so much violence.