Healthcare Safety and Security: Navigating a Service in Crisis

Safety and security are important issues both for hospital staff members and their patients. Written by healthcare gurus, Charles Schnabolk and Ben Scaglione, this book is an expose on the current state of healthcare and the dangers and risks associated with being a patient navigating within the healthcare environment. The authors address the risks and threats hospitals and healthcare staff endure while treating patients and working in the healthcare field. They discuss the potential hazards associated with patient treatment and care. From wrong-site surgeries to acquired infections, the book includes some of the top patient risks as outlined by the Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goals and discusses other less acknowledged risks, ones not immediately known to the public, like loss of personal property, sexual assault, and the physical as well as mental abuse that patients may suffer while housed or visiting within the healthcare environment.

Also included is a discussion of newer hazards brought on by current technology like cyber security. The authors describe the challenges hospitals have associated with hackers and staff who wish to destroy or steal medical records. Hackers who hold hospitals hostage and seek monies in return for stolen access to medical records captured during a hack into the hospital’s virtual network. Staff who steal medical record information which they look to sell to the highest bidder on the dark web for use in compromising the financial information of those patients who use hospital’s services. Most hospitals in the U.S. have a long list of procedures, rules, and regulations to keep staff and patients safe including, but not limited to staff assaults, abuse, and bullying. The violence staff has endured while working within hospitals, clinics, and the Emergency Department has been increasing over the years peaking post- Covid-19 to levels never seen before.

The book discusses the violence that has plagued healthcare for decades. According to the Joint Commission, healthcare workers are around four times as likely to experience workplace violence compared to workers in other industries. Talking about the unknown abuse that occurs between nurses and doctors in the care of patients during surgeries and medical treatments. The authors address these issues and many more while providing current information on each topic and suggesting resolutions and mitigation strategies that assist in reducing the potential for the identified risks from occurring again.

Charles Schnabolk, P.E. - Consulting Engineer, Inventor, Author, University Lecturer, and a pioneer in security technology since 1970 when he designed the security system for the original World Trade Center. He consulted on the security design of hundreds of complex facilities, including schools, banks, retail stores, hotels and in many of the nation’s major hospitals and medical care facilities.

Bernard J. (Ben) Scaglione, CPP, CHPA, CHSP, is principal of The Secure Hospital a blogging and resource management site. Ben is author of the book, ＂Security Management for Healthcare: Proactive Event Prevention and Effective Resolution.＂ He has a master’s degree from Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice and has served as a security director for more than 25 years in New York City area hospitals, including New York Presbyterian, Bellevue, and Atlantic Health System. Ben has served in multiple capacities for International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety (IAHSS) over the past 10 years, including several councils, committees, and the IAHSS Board of Directors. He is past Chairman of the ASIS International Healthcare Council and past President of the New York City Metropolitan Healthcare Safety and Security Directors Association. Ben is a past columnist for Security Magazine and a frequent contributor to the Journal of Healthcare Protection Management. He has served as an adjunct faculty member at Pratt Institute, Interboro Institute, New Jersey City University, and John Jay College Peace Officer Academy.