ODS Security Initiates Behavior Protection for Hospital Security

RICHMOND, Va., Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- ODS Security is now combining the principles of Family Centered Care with threatening behavior protection training to augment its protective services for healthcare and hospital security.  ODS Security recognizes the increasing need for its hospital security guards to be trained in observing and recognizing threatening behavior to avert the growing threat of violent incidents at healthcare facilities.

Threatening behavior protection encompasses the effective handling of all threats pertaining to the Hospital Security Officer, from routine domestic altercations to mass casualty incidents and terrorist attacks. Hospital security requires fully integrated protective services that not only cover traditional armed and unarmed security officer training but also the "soft" skills associated with covert/overt observation of threatening behavior of patients, staff and visitors.

ODS Security training will balance between the "soft" skills required for a Family Centered Care environment with those diligent observational skills of hospital security guards required to recognize and reduce the risk of all forms of threatening behavior that result in Infant Abduction, Patient Attack, Staff Injury and Facility Damage.

The threat of violence at healthcare facilities has been increasing in the United States over the years.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that from 1997 to 2008 there were 131 people killed while conducting healthcare and social services work and during this same period, 20 people were killed on hospital premises.  

Additionally, according to estimates from BLS, 2,637 nonfatal assaults on hospital workers occurred in 1999 (8.3 assaults per 10,000 workers).  This rate is much higher than the rate of nonfatal assaults for all private-sector industries which is 2 per 10,000 (USDHHS, 2002).

"With the growing awareness of the possibility of violent acts being committed within healthcare facilities, we must train our staff to be more prepared to recognize the early signs of threatening behavior while keeping hospital staffs, patients and visitors safe during their time in the facility," notes Rafe Wilkinson, owner of ODS.  "We have elevated the level of our guard staff competence in this area and, at the same time, balanced the other skills needed for maintaining a Family Centered Care environment."

According to a report by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health — "State of the Sector/Healthcare and Social Assistance" — published in 2009, health care workers are more than three times as likely as workers in other industries to be injured by acts of violence.  "Health care workers are at risk for verbal, psychological and physical violence," the report says. "Violent acts occur during interactions with patients, family, visitors, coworkers and supervisors."

ODS Security officers at healthcare facilities with a stated requirement will be trained in the following: the assailant mindset, gathering intelligence, counterintelligence, suspicious signs/knowing suspicious signs, questioning and security procedure, knowing how to recognize a suicide bomber, identifying an explosive devise and emergency situation behavior.

"Our hospital recognizes that there is a persistent and ever growing threat of violence at our facilities," stated Greg Brison, a Director of Hospital Security near Washington DC. "We are very pleased that ODS Security is augmenting the skills and increasing the readiness of its security guard force at our hospital.  We are confident that ODS guards' situation awareness will result in a safer and more pleasant experience for our patients, staff and visitors."

"I do appreciate ODS Security's commitment for knowledge and readiness among its people. It is very rare to find a private company who makes this their motto and fully integrates this philosophy within its security guard force," noted Shlomo Ben Dor, Hospital Security Preparedness (HSP) Course Manager for SiTEL Simulation and Training Environment Lab.

Mr. Ben Dor has more than twenty years of intense experience in counter terrorism and field security including international airports and general security around the world including as the Senior Director of Aviation Security for El-Al Airlines and Senior Security Director for the Embassy of Israel in Cyprus. Additionally, Mr. Ben Dor was former head of the Security Department at Hadassah Medical Center in Israel where he had comprehensive executive experience combined with strategic planning and management.

Since workplace violence can occur in any work environment, ODS Security will gradually expand the Threatening Behavior Protection training taught in the HSP course to other ODS Security professionals (armed and unarmed) at other client sites in Universities and Colleges, Manufacturing & Industrial, Commercial Real Estate & Corporate Environments, Financial Institutions, Government Services and Construction.

This blended and focused mission is just the latest in ODS Security's quest to continue to be recognized as the premier healthcare security services provider in the region.

About ODS Security

Old Dominion Security (ODS Security) employs 700 personnel whose mission is to care for the physical security and workplace environments of Fortune 500 companies to small businesses throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Since 1997, ODS has developed a significant concentration of business in the Healthcare sector (hospitals, medical systems and retirement communities including assisted living, nursing care) as well as Manufacturing & Industrial, Commercial Real Estate & Corporate Environments, Financial Institutions, Government Services, Construction Sites and Temporary Security Services. ODS Security is headquartered 2205 Tomlynn Street, Richmond, VA 23230 with offices throughout the mid-Atlantic - (804) 521-7897.  For more information go to www.olddominionsecurityco.com.

SOURCE ODS Security