Hospital violence reportedly rising

Saturday’s shooting at Wright-Patterson Medical Center shows vulnerability.

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By Ben Sutherly and Amelia Robinson
Staff Writers Updated 7:44 AM Tuesday, June 14, 2011

The attempted suicide Saturday at Wright-Patterson Medical Center, in which a man fired a gun in the hospital’s emergency room, shows that hospitals are just as susceptible to acts of violence as other institutions.

“Hospitals at one time were much like churches and schools, and were considered somewhat sacred,” said Bryan Warren, president-elect of the International Association of Healthcare Safety and Security. “Unfortunately, that’s not the case anymore. In this post-Columbine and post-Virginia Tech world, things can happen anywhere.”

The man, described as appearing intoxicated or distraught, entered the emergency room with a 9 mm handgun at 6:30 p.m. Saturday. The lone shot he fired seemed to be aimed at his own body, but he was not struck, and no one was injured, according to the base’s public affairs office. He surrendered to base security forces.

In Orlando, Dr. Dmitriy Nikitin was shot to death May 26 by a disgruntled patient as he walked from Florida Hospital’s downtown building into the parking garage. Security experts say doctors are increasingly the target of patients’ ire.

“Patients do target doctors more. We see case after case of this,” said Russell Colling, a Colorado-based health care-security consultant. “We live in an era where, if I have a problem, it’s not my fault.”

American hospitals are experiencing more violence on their grounds and inside their corridors than ever before.

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.

“Violence in the hospital environment mirrors society, and health care is one of the largest industries in the U.S. So we’re kind of a microcosm of society itself,” said Colling, author of three hospital safety textbooks.

In September, Americans were reminded of that when a man walked into Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and shot a doctor, then his elderly mother — who had been the doctor’s patient — and then himself.

Area hospitals have various levels of security measures in place.

Like other hospitals nationwide, Miami Valley Hospital used federal funds distributed following the 9/11 attacks to install metal detectors in its emergency room, spokeswoman Nancy Thickel said.

The hospital has seen a 20 percent decline in security incidents over the past five years, Thickel said. She attributed that drop in part to the hospital’s campus police officers and security staff.

Miami Valley hired a company to audit its security efforts after the Oct. 1, 2009, stabbing and robbery of a nurse in a hospital parking lot on Apple Street. The man was able to get through a code-locked gate because the lock had been disengaged to let construction workers park there.

The hospital’s uniformed security team is made of specially trained members. It includes several former Dayton police officers, she noted.

Rebecca Czachor, a Miami Valley administrator, said staffers receive special training to defuse heated situations and there is bullet proof glass in emergency room nursing areas.

Hospitals are not violent places, but precautions are necessary to ensure the safety of staff members and patients, she said. She noted that people come to emergency room under stressful situations and included some who are intoxicated, victims of assault or are in police custody.

Hospital violence is seemingly on the uptick, she said. “I think it is happening in multiple places (in society). I think it just overflows into hospitals,” she said.

Good Samaritan Hospital spokeswoman Renee Roberts said that incidents like Saturday’s at Wright-Patterson naturally cause hospitals to revaluate safety procedures.

Good Samaritan, which has seen a 9 percent reduction in security incidents from 2008 to 2010, does not have metal detectors, having decided that they would not be effective given the multiple entrances into the hospital, Roberts said.

It uses a security force that receives annual training through the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Regional Training Center. Members are designated special institution police officers and one on duty around the clock in the emergency room.

Among other things, the hospital uses an emergency code system, and for several years it has employed a state-of-the-art surveillance camera system.

“There is not any space that can not be monitored through the hospital,” Roberts said.

Susan Brockman, a spokeswoman for Dayton Children’s Medical Center, said that there are no metal detectors in the hospital, but a security guard in her hospital’s emergency room and there is card-only access to several areas in the hospital after hours.

She said a sick or injured child can obviously elevate a parent’s stress level.

“We always try to keep the families and patients safe in every area (of the hospital),” she said. “We have a 24-hour, seven day a week security team.”

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