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How to handle suspicious packages

Healthcare Security Weekly, March 1, 2004

When it comes to handling suspicious packages in your hospital, the responsibility typically lies in security's hands.

"We get a lot of calls for suspicious activity or a suspicious person," says Fredrick Roll, CHPA-F, CPP, security consultant for Roll Enterprises, Inc., in Colorado. "When hospital staff sees suspicious things they call security. The two groups have to work together, but just because you have a uniform on doesn't make you a hero."

While security officers train in observing suspicious people and packages, Roll says most officers have no idea how to handle bombs and security must focus more on preventing injury.

"The best thing security can do is get the people out, form a perimeter, and not let anybody in until the true professionals arrive," Roll says. "Bombs and those things are a real science. If you don't do it right, you'll have a personal problem and expose people to injury."

However, bombs aren't the only threat that may come from a suspicious package. Nowadays, bioterrorism from suspicious packages is also a concern.

Use the following seven tips when handling suspicious packages:

  • Look for anything that might seem out of the ordinary. For instance, a briefcase tucked behind a toilet is unusual, Roll says.
  • Ask people who work in different parts of the hospital if they notice anything out of the ordinary. "Typically, security looks through the general public corridors," Roll says. 
  • If there's a report of a suspicious package, conduct some preliminary questions first. Ask people in the area if the package belongs to them. Ask if people saw someone leave the package.
  • Remember that you can't call the bomb squad on everything. "You have to really look at the whole circumstance involving the package," Roll says. However, "if someone called in a bomb threat that day--I do not suggest opening it."
  • Remove your cell phone and radio before approaching the package.
  • Conduct a cursory review of the package. Do you hear any ticking? Is there liquid oozing from the package? Are names misspelled in the package's address?
  • Consider terrorism in all of your policies and procedures involving suspicious packages.

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