The epidemic of violence in this country comes to medicine. In last month there have been 3 incidents in hospitals and one at a doctors house.
1) In Reno today two people were killed, others injured when a gunman came into a hospital.
2) A nurse in Texas was stabbed to death and 4 others injured in a hospital in late November.
3) Man killed fleeing from Childrens hospital in Milwaukee after brandishing a gun when police tried to arrest him there in mid November.
4) In my area a doctor was killed when the son of a former patient killed him at his home.
Scary fact: From 2000-2011 there were 154 hospital based shootings with 235 victims. (from 2 minute medicine)
Not only do we have to worry about violence by the patients, now there is increasing violence from the outside as well.
Our ER has no metal detector. We are wide open. Its scary.
Do you have metal detectors? How do you control movement in and out of the ER?
I actually left 10 years of bedside ICU work to go to the emergency department because of the lack of security.
ReplyDeleteAs a level 1 trauma ICU getting violent crimes, threats from families... One guy showed a video to one of the nurses caring for his dying daughter a video of a woman getting her head blown off, was found lurking in the staff stairwell exit, then when he was found, he came up to the unit and said he was coming back with a gun.
Our management department refused to allow us to even activate our security cameras in the unit or have security on the unit what-so-ever because it would "reflect badly to other visitors".
Ugh.
Luckily, our ER has a metal detector manned by security who also searches patient's belongings, and all of the entrances are key-card only, even the break rooms and kitchen.
I feel much safer now, but that hasn't stopped people from threatening us!