Canadian Security Magazine

Trillium Health Centre receives IAHSS award

Linda Johnson   

News Health Care

Trillium Health Centre in Mississauga, Ont., has been awarded the Program of Distinction, Level 1 Accreditation, by the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety (IAHSS).

The award, in effect from October 2011 to October 2013, recognizes healthcare security departments that include a minimum percentage of staff who have achieved IAHSS certification.

Trillium has 25 to 30 full-time security officers, and when they applied for the award, 83 per cent were certified with basic training. Ken Close, manager of security and parking services, says preparing for the exams took a lot of work, but it’s important to improve professional standards.

“We’ve tried to raise the bar of security in health care and to look at what we can do to support the whole security industry,” he says. “The [IAHSS standard] is not going to get an officer to the level we all want them at, but at least it will give them a more generic knowledge across the board in regards to what we want them to know.”  

Close said a small but growing number of health care facilities across Canada is encouraging their employees to be certified or requiring certification as a condition of employment. One result is that the IAHSS manual and exams are continually being revised to contain more Canadian material.  

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Trillium is the second health care facility in Canada, after Brampton Civic Hospital, to receive the IAHSS award.


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