Issue link: https://securitytechnologyexecutive.epubxp.com/i/690996
30 SECURITY TECHNOLOGY EXECUTIVE • May/June 2016 www.SecurityInfoWatch.com EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT utilities, or ARE / IT equipment can have a disastrous effect on patient care and the ability to treat those in the community. This includes sources of potentially dangerous raw materials for the creation of a radiation dispersal device (RDD), or "dirty bomb" due to the presence of sometimes significant amounts of certain iso- topes of interest. The US Department of Homeland Security has created a number of best practices and guide- lines for securing and reporting suspicious activ- ity in and around such areas. During a dynamic event such as a public health emergency, many first responders and local law enforcement (as well as your own security forces) may be other- wise engaged and the opportunity to exploit such security-sensitive areas, (for either profit or sabo- tage) increases exponentially without a dedicated guardian or physical security countermeasure to protect such assets. Using Existing Resources and Toolkits Every few years, the American College of Emer- gency Physicians (ACEP) issues America's Emer- gency Care Report Card which grades each state on five primary criteria to determine an overall score related to its emergency care capabilities (the last one at the time of this writing was issued on January 16th, 2014). While the scores var- ied state to state for Access to Emergency Care, Quality / Patient Safety, Medical Liability, Pub- lic Health / Injury Prevention and Disaster Pre- paredness, the U.S. received an overall grade of a D+, down from a C- in 2009. Despite the continued threat of terrorist and other criminal activity, 14 states received an F for their Disaster Preparedness capability. From a security perspective, consider this. As a gen- eral rule, no one comes to a hospital because they want to. In a disaster situation, be it a pandem- ic, a chemical or radiation contamination event or a natural or man-made catastrophe, a large number of people will be arriving at their local healthcare provider due to their own injuries to obtain treatment for family members or friends. Others come to get checked out "just in case", which is sometimes referred to as the walking worried. This occurred in Tokyo in 1995 follow- ing a terrorist sarin gas release, where thousands of unaffected people flooded local hospital out of panic and quickly overwhelmed facility capaci- ties. Patient surges resulting from a public health event is something that every hospital should be prepared for and have processes and plans in place to mitigate the security and traffic-related problems that accompany such events. It is for this reason that a number of specialized secu- rity and safety guidelines and tools have been designed by and provided to healthcare security professionals free of charge. Regardless of a hos- pital's size, complexity or location, such refer- ence materials can help in the coordination of emergency management and security planning efforts with local law enforcement and other first responders for a variety of situations. One such program, the On the Safe Side Tool- kit, has been developed to assist hospitals, pub- lic health agencies, and local law enforcement in planning for and responding to public health emergencies which may occur in their commu- nities. This toolkit was developed by the South Carolina Dept. of Health and Environmen- tal Control Advanced Practice Center and the National Association of County and City Health Officials and is designed to give preparedness planners easy access to many of the materials they will need to appropriately respond to such emergency events including: • developing effective hospital security and traffic management plans for medical patient surges and other emergency situations, • creating a "point of dispensing" site security and traffic management plan for mass prophy- laxis and medication distribution, • preparing for and hosting a hospital and law enforcement multidisciplinary training work- shop and assisting healthcare facilities in host- ing a hospital and law enforcement security- based tabletop exercise to better prepare for such events. This program contains several useful templates including a Point of Dispensing Site Security and Traffic Management Template, a Hospital Surge Security Template, a Law Enforcement and Healthcare Workshop Template and a Security- Based Tabletop Exercise Template plus various resource and support materials. The Point of Dispensing Template (a location established to deliver appropriate pharmaceuticals or prophylaxis / vaccinations to the public) includes sections to assist with site selection, site suitability assessment, security measures for such sites, traffic management assessment and a POD field operations guide. The Hospital Surge Security Template includes It has been said that in chaos there exists opportunity, and unfortunately many criminals subscribe to this philosophy.