Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.
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2 0 S U P P L E M E N T T O O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E J U N E 2 0 1 6 just as you would for anything else. The good news is that you don't have to reinvent the wheel to have this plan in place. There are plenty of resources available. Look to organizations like FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security, which have plans that you can adapt to your facility. Ms. Chrismer stresses that you team up with local resources as well, whether that's the fire department, police department, other local hospitals or ASCs, or even your neighbors. Creating alliances with these groups can help you to be prepared. Finally, most plans also need to teach employees and surgeons how to run, hide and fight. The general idea is that if you can run away, do it. If you can't, then hide, and if neither of those options is available, then fighting the attacker is the last resort. • Finding a balance between being secure and welcoming. When it comes to making your facility secure, one of the biggest challenges — especially for ambulatory surgery centers — is finding a balance between being an open, wel- coming environment and having a secure and safe facility. It's not like a hospi- tal's emergency room. People are more tolerant of metal detectors and being patted down in those larger settings. But in a center where people are paying out-of-pocket for elective surgery, it's off-putting to have these in-your-face secu- rity measures. You want patients to feel safe and secure, not that you're always anticipating something bad to happen. Before the attack, patients and family members could come and go as they pleased at the surgery center. Many doors stayed open and unlocked. But after the attack, the center began using radiofrequency identification technology, so staff and physicians needed to swipe their badges to access certain areas. "We thought that this was a subtler way to secure the center," says Ms. Chrismer. • Stay engaged. Another key characteristic of having a secure facility is that everyone, from leadership on down, is engaged. There's a situational awareness instilled in everyone. People are aware if a patient or escort is acting "weird," or they notice that one of the doors isn't closing like it should. It also means