Video, Access Control, CPTED Complement Patrols
While implementing smart officer management practices, Sheets was also actively working to upgrade LifeBridge’s security technology. Its old VHS recording equipment was replaced by digital video recording that could be monitored remotely. Access control was also improved. “We looked at where we could apply access control and not have to use keys to unlock [doors],” he says. “Where we have CCTV, we can cover more of our campus and reduce the number of areas we have to patrol.”
But before technology could be implemented, Sheets had to work closely with LifeBridge’s Health Systems Construction Management Division to include CPTED concepts in more than $240 million of new capital projects. He partnered with other LifeBridge staff, as well as the architects and engineers, to work on the design so that the flow of patients, staff and visitors would optimize campus safety and security.
Visibility, for example, had to be clear. “You might have a long hallway, and the nurses would be at the end and face away from the patients’ rooms,” he says. “We turned the nurse station around so they can look at 23 rooms down the hall.” Cameras were then installed where needed.
Computer mapping was also added to identify where and when incidents occur. Additionally, cameras and access points were mapped for inspection and maintenance, as were key areas of the hospital, such as elevators and stairwells, for emergency operations purposes. “It’s helped us to direct and reallocate our resources,” he adds. “We’re now able to see patterns and problems much quicker.”
Despite Success, Sheets Remains Vigilant
All of these improvements, however, would not be possible without support from LifeBridge’s administration, as well as its security officers, and Sheets is quick to acknowledge this. “I think I’m very fortunate to be working for a good organization that lets me manage in a manner that has been effective,” he says. “Also, any success I’ve had has to go back to the folks who do the job day in and day out.”
That said, the director believes the healthcare setting is more vulnerable now than ever before, so he’s not resting on his laurels. “Particularly with the downturn in the economy, people turn to the local hospital when they don’t have anywhere else to turn to,” he says. “The need to move
healthcare security to the next level is vital to our communities.”
NOTE: Nominations for the 2009 Campus Safety Director of the Year program are now being accepted. The entry form and judging criteria can be found at www.campussafetymagazine.com/DirectorOfTheYear. Coverage of previous years’ winners and finalists can also be found on this site.
