Canadian Security Magazine

New Patient Care Program from G4S addresses varying needs of hospitals

By Canadian Security   

News Industry News

G4S has announced that it is now offering a three-tiered Patient Care Program that can be used to address the varied needs of a hospital’s manned security requirements.  

The company’s Tier 1 Patient Care Specialist can be deployed across a broad spectrum of basic patient care environments and has a minimum of 40 hours of training specifically geared to the constant observation role.  

Tier 2 G4S Healthcare Professional security personnel have completed the minimum 40 hours of training that the Patient Care Specialist has completed. They then undergo an additional 32 hours of classroom training and achieve professional designations through the International Association of Healthcare Security & Safety (IAHSS) that will prepare them for the specialization that is required in today’s evolving healthcare environments.  

Tier 3 G4S Elite Protection Division (EPD) personnel carry one of two designations: Elite Protection Professional or Elite Protection Officer Healthcare specialization. They have completed the 72 hours of training that the G4S Healthcare Professional has completed as well as an additional 24 hours of security and healthcare specific training. Members of the G4S EPD can be deployed in any environment within Canadian hospitals. 

According to G4S, Canadian hospitals are experiencing new and unique challenges to their Security and Life Safety departments. A survey of healthcare security executives by the International Association for Healthcare Security & Safety (IAHSS) reveals increases in reported violent crimes in hospitals in 2009 compared to similar crimes reported in a survey five years ago.  

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“The hospital environment is changing,” says Piero Romani, chief technology officer and vice-president eastern region for G4S Secure Solutions Canada. “We have guards who have to deal with gun shot victims walking through the door and there is the whole world of mental health which is getting more complicated. The demographics are changing too and we’re getting called in for different types of patient watches. We’re seeing a lot more hospitals who didn’t have a dedicated mental health level before who are now dealing with that at a regional hospital level.”

Romani says today’s hospitals may include mixed sensitive care environments such as Mental Health, Infant/Child Care, and Emergency Care and each area of the hospital has its own unique security requirements.
 
Two hospitals in Ontario currently using the Tier 3 Elite Protection Division service are Lakeridge Health and the Kingston Hospitals.

“We are implementing the service here effective April,” says Rocky Prosser, Director of Emergency Management, Security & Life Safety with Kingston General, Providence Care, Hotel Dieu Hospitals in Kingston, Ont. “The reason I went with this service is due to the content of their training for Elite Protection Officers, which far outweighs anything I have yet to see in the security industry. This is a level of training that should be a standard of practice for any organization where there is a high public interaction with security or is a risk for violence/violent behavior.”


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