Violence in Healthcare
Active Shooter Incidents
The FBI identified 277 active shooter incidents involving 282 shooters in the U.S. that occurred between 2000 and 2018.
6% of incidents occurred at healthcare facilities
EMMA is Not Just About Active Shooters.
In accordance with the Department of Education’s Guide for Crisis Planning, EMMA was developed with standard alerts for a wide range of events and hazards caused both by both nature and by people.
Does Your Hospital or Clinic Facilitate Two-Way Communications With Your Emergency Codes?
Emergency protocols are set in motion numerous times a day at hospitals. Administrators and staff issue alerts via emergency codes, often communicated via personal devices (smartphones and pagers) and intercom systems. Typical code systems help prevent unnecessary panic among visitors and patients — which can impede emergency protocols and responses. A handful of hospital codes, such as code blue or code red, are common enough, but the federal government has yet to standardize the code system, leaving each state, city or even individual hospitals to their own systems.
According to the American Journal of Managed Care, violence against healthcare workers is a rising epidemic. In this era of violence, hospitals and other healthcare facilities need strong strategic safety plans.
Your hospital or clinic likely has an emergency response plan and code protocol but with the new normal of complex and unpredictable threats facing healthcare today, it has never been more imperative to make every minute matter when it comes to a critical emergency event. That’s where two-way communication during an emergency can provide improve situational awareness and decrease response times.
A hospital safety app or emergency management app can be used to directly reach security personnel or alert 911 during a myriad of situations, and it can also be used to store vital resources such as building plans, protocols, and a list of codes.
Discretion is vital to hospital and clinic safety. Audience grouping, within emergency technology, streamlines the notification process allowing you to notify your users more efficiently. Some examples of grouping include administrators; staff; patients; visitors. These groups can even be location-specific for your facility.
If you are a hospital administrator or security officer and seek to improve situational awareness and rapidly respond to critical events as they unfold — two-way communication is the key to engaging your emergency plan in the most efficient and effective way possible.
With direct and more complete intelligence on the emergency event from physicians, nurses and staff within your facility, you’ll be able to increase your speed and decisiveness in order to assess risks and prevent further harm to the people in a crisis situation.