Healthcare facilities, such as hospitals, doctor’s offices, and round-the-clock urgent care centers, are becoming more and more vulnerable to the safety of patients and security. These buildings need to be managed in order to cut risks and limit liabilities while increasing and securing the safety of those working and be treated inside.
Healthcare facilities are prone to risks of security threats posed by unwanted guests and temporary visitors who are not there to be treated. Managing hospital visitors is an important yet often overlooked consideration for patient safety and recovery. While hospitals are aware enough to know that visitors can present a major threat to their patients’ safety there is still little being done to stop the spread of germs and infections as well as the possibility of violent actions to take place.
Having a healthcare risk management program in place, accented by healthcare risk management insurance, will help hospitals cut down on possible claims and risks as well as help ensure the safety and health of those being treated.
Limiting Risk from Visitors
Hospital incidents have occurred where a visitor has entered a restricted hospital room without a visitor badge with the intention of harming a patient, or staff, or other visitors. Hospital visitors present a very real threat to the integrity of the surroundings and the health of those inside if they are not handled properly by hospital security management.
It’s important that hospitals and other healthcare facilities ensure that those who enter are authorized and not a risk for patients. One way this can be executed is through a visitor management protocol that boosts safety on hospital grounds.
Healthcare companies can adopt a visitor management system to keep an eye on the movement of visitors who enter their facilities for various reasons. Visitor management systems can help track hospital visitors in real-time through software that controls records and tracks visitors to a hospital. These systems monitor each visitor in the facility and keep records of all information about the visitor in a single database.
These systems can help hospitals and other care facilities keep track of potential risks, like visitors with bad records or notes highlighted by incidents in the past where others were affected negatively by their presence in some fashion. A visitor management system can track visitors through visiting approvals, badge management, record keeping, process management, and ID registration, creating a multi-layer approach to safety and security.
Visiting Hours
Rest is an essential part of a patient’s recovery process. For a healthcare organization, it’s important to decide visiting hours to meet patients who are staying over. Limited numbers of visitors should be allowed to meet a patient in a particular window of time.
For patients who have undergone major surgery, a hospital should be sure to keep visiting hours even more limited and only allow certain people in to visit the patients, such as immediate family. Having a system in place to protect patients while also protecting others from potential health risks posed by the patient is an important factor in health management. Only healthcare workers, doctors, and authorized staff of the medical facility should be able to enter certain rooms where a level of security needs to be maintained.
About Connected Risk Solutions
At Connected Risk Solutions, we use our expertise and experience to provide insurance information and programs to those who serve long-term care and senior living facilities. Since 2007, we’ve been offering insurance and risk management plans designed to help our agents give their clients the ability to achieve continued growth while simultaneously protecting against loss, containing costs and increasing profitability. To learn more, contact us at 678.359.6365.
