FFH addresses security against active shooters

Security was on the minds of those in attendance at the monthly meeting of the Franklin Foundation Hospital Board of Commissioners on Thursday.
And while he lamented it was unfortunate in this day and age measures are necessary to address a possible active-shooter scenario at a hospital, Quorum Health Resources (QHR) Vice President Don Smithburg told the board on Thursday that FFH has a plan in place should the unthinkable happen. And it has happened to him before.
“Hospitals, like libraries and post offices and universities are vulnerable,” Smithburg said. “In my 30 years of hospital management, I’ve actually been involved in three active-shooter incidents. Quorum has developed for all of it’s affiliated hospitals a sample policy and checklist for dealing with an active-shooter situation in hospitals.”
Smithburg said hospitals are particularly exposed to the danger posed by an active-shooter.
“These are institutions that are typically, by design, leaky from a security point of view,” Smithburg said. “By design hospitals are supposed to be accessible. Over the years, hospitals have gotten tighter and tighter. But, it continues to be an issue. So, this institution does have a policy around an active-shooter.”
Sophisticated security protocols are also in place at FFH for another at-risk group of patrons that frequent the hospital. Chief Nursing Officer Frank Corcoran reported that FFH has installed new, state-of-the-art, security measures for newborns.
Corcoran said the system is designed to prevent kidnapping of newborn babies. The system is designed to alert hospital staff if an unauthorized person attempts to remove a newborn from designated areas within FFH. Corcoran said both the baby and the mother wear an unobtrusive monitoring system that sounds an alarm if the wrong person is handling the baby.
Corcoran also reported FFH recently received high marks for cleanliness. He said FFH scored in the 99th percentile for a clean facility.
Interim FFH CEO Jim Platt also had good news for the board. Platt said a recent inspection report by the state of Louisiana came back with extremely high marks for the facility.
“We received the final report and this is the first time in my career that I’ve seen a validation survey by the state where they said we were in substantial compliance,” Platt said. “We did not even have to submit a plan of correction. That’s how well we did. That’s unheard of.”