WHO IS MINDING HOMELAND SECURITY FOR HOSPITALS?
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.7581/pub_detail.asp
Who is Minding Homeland Security for Hospitals?
James Blair, DPA, MHA, FACHE
The nation’s hospital and healthcare systems have failed to meet their expected roles and responsibilities in the country’s evolving 20-year strategy for homeland security. Well before the 9/11 attacks, the industry ignored many calls to prepare for known threats of non-state terrorist groups securing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) from stockpiles left from the Cold War.
Terrorist attacks with or without WMDs are only one of three major threats facing hospitals. Evolving infectious diseases and more frequent and robust natural disasters are the other two.
Few would dispute that hospitals are very dangerous places in the best of times. The last decade has seen little progress in the battle against hospital-acquired infections and other medical misadventures that surfaced in the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) oft-cited To err is human report.
We have lost sight of what could happen if nuclear or dirty bombs exploded or a Pacific seismic plate slipped. And what would happen if a raging virus pandemic spread?
In the recent hospital “building boom,” new healthcare facilities have been built according to a hospitality model rather than taking advantage of the “mother-of-all-hazards” mitigation of vulnerabilities in design and construction. Federal healthcare workplaces are much more safe and secure than their non-federal counterparts, because Congress mandated more stringent design and construction requirements for federal buildings.
Some of the most distinguished hospital systems on the West Coast have failed to protect their stakeholders from known seismic hazards. Indeed, the California Nurses Association has been vocal about what they characterize as “unsafe workplaces.”
Here’s another security threat. The poor vetting of healthcare caregivers and other hospital workers with sensitive job tasks has surfaced as one of the causes for today’s healthcare workplace violence. Female healthcare employees are among the most assaulted groups in the American workforce. What’s more the lack of screening could lead to potential terrorists posing inside threats to our hospitals.
The medical use of radioactive substances continues to pose a major threat to medical and healthcare sites. An excellent example of the nature of this threat is the cesium-137 irradiators found in approximately 800 healthcare locations across the nation. They have been characterized by the Defense Science Board as “low hanging fruit” one-half of the dreaded “dirty bomb.”
Some have suggested that the proliferation of biological labs containing some the deadliest agents known to man pose an additional threat to all. Continued evidence of poor security at these sites is worrisome. Hospitals near these labs have prepared for neither bioerror nor bioterror events.
This all leads me to ask, who is minding the healthcare homeland security store? I worry that it’s the same folks who were watching my 401(k) investments.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributor Dr. James Blair, DPA, MHA, FACHE, FABCHS, is president and CEO of the Center for HealthCare Emergency Readiness. This article was adapted from excerpts from Blair’s book, Unready: To Err is Human: The Other Neglected Side of Hospital Safety and Security, which was published in June. He is also a career-retired army colonel with 28 years of active service. Among his private sector experiences, he served as VP of Hospital Corporation of America, Middle East Limited and as an independent consultant to Joint Commission International.
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