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Know when to lockdown your hospital

Healthcare Security Weekly, May 24, 2004

If you're unsure when to activate a lockdown plan, consider the advice of Earl Williams, HSP, safety coordinator for BroMenn Healthcare in Bloomington, IL, and Bonnie Michelman, CPP, CHPA, director of police, security, and outside services for Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, who spoke to Healthcare Security and Emergency Management (HSEM) regarding lockdowns last month.

"From our perspective, it runs from a VIP coming to the hospital, like the president or a rock star, to riots at a nearby college campus, to a homeland security alert," Williams says. "If we were to have some sort of smallpox outbreak and our hospital was one of the sites where vaccines became available, people may panic and rush us. We would go into lockdown status for vaccinations. It's hard to imagine every possible situation."

"I would characterize the need for a lockdown as when the infusion of a lot of people into the hospital created a risk to staff and visitors," Michelman says. "For example, a hazardous contamination situation, citywide terrorist attack, or gang-related event would necessitate a lockdown. There are a variety of situations that may call for people to be out of the hospital, but it's very difficult to keep people inside."

To learn more about hospital lockdowns, read the May issue of HSEM.

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