142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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310723
Active Shooter Preparedness in Healthcare Organizations

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Monday, November 17, 2014

Eileen Houseknecht , Trauma Program, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Douglas J. Wiebe, PhD , Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
Michael L. Nance, MD , Department of Surgery, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Abstract

Background

The degree of preparedness of healthcare organizations for active shooter events is unclear. 

Methods

Members of a professional nursing organization completed an anonymous online survey on security measures, training, and perceptions of preparedness for an active shooter in their organizations.

Results

Ninety two surveys were returned.  Most organizations were large level 1 urban trauma centers.  The most commonly used security measures were surveillance cameras (83.7%) and regular ground patrol (81.5%).  Of all security personnel, 30.4% were reported to be armed.  Electronic card access systems were also common (69.6%), although few utilize bag inspection (8.7%) or metal detectors/x-ray scanners (6.5%).  More than half of the organizations have entrances that the public can enter unmonitored (51.7%).  Policy is in place in less than half (47.7%) of the organizations, with fewer employing training (27.3%), or education (15.9%).  Accordingly, only 37.9% of respondents felt they would know how to respond effectively if an active shooter entered their work area.  A notable percentage of respondents (14.0%) reported that their hospital had experienced an active shooter incident.  Overall, few felt that their organizations were extremely capable (4.6%) or very capable (13.8%) of responding effectively.

Conclusions

We found that a majority of participating hospitals in the US have not implemented measures to attain comprehensive access control or response training specific to an active shooter situation.  A notable percentage of hospitals have experienced these incidents, yet few are perceived to be highly capable of responding effectively.  Actions to improve preparedness for the active shooter are warranted.  

 

 

Learning Areas:

Occupational health and safety

Learning Objectives:
Describe the most commonly used security measures and deficiencies in preparedness for an active shooter within the healthcare organizations represented in this study.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the research coordinator for multiple trauma research projects under the direction of the Trauma medical director of a trauma center. Among my interests is gun violence.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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