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Tip: Tackle your facility's security risk

Compliance Monitor, August 10, 2005

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Protect patients and staff by assessing your organization's security risks and determining the degree of those risks. To get started, take the following steps:

1. Determine what risks affect each department and organizational function. Consider significant risks, such as assault, disturbances, fire, imposters,and abductions.

2. Obtain crime information or data for the area in which the hospital is located-include at least a one-mile radius.

 Get these statistics from the CAP Index. Call 800/227-7475 to request a Crimecast map for the area.

 Compare crime statistics for the hospital/area to the city, county, or national average.

3. Review past security reports, including security planning documents, prior security assessments and consultation reports.

4. Develop a profile for the hospital's unique security risks. Consider patients served and factors that may influence the level of security activity (e.g., accreditation and regulatory issues, communication, electronic assistance devices, security mobility).

5. Consider what patients and employees see as security concerns.

 Review patient feedback forms.

 Review employee comments and concerns.

6. Develop an interdisciplinary inspection team:

 Identify which service areas are represented on the inspection team.

 Ensure that the inspection team also visits the grounds at night during and after late-night shift changes.

The above tip is an excerpt from the book "Hospital Auditing and Monitoring: Sample Programs for Key Risk Areas," copyright 2005 by HCPro, Inc. This book is a step-by-step, practical manual that offers sample audit programs for the most troublesome areas that a hospital must audit. The binder and CD-ROM are filled with actual audit programs used by auditors and compliance officers in the field. Click here for more information or to order your copy today.

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