QUOTE
Hospitals: No metal detectors
By Rick A. Richards, The News-Dispatch
The second shooting in a patient room at LaPorte Hospital in 23 months has raised questions about hospital security, although LaPorte Hospital officials maintain there is no need to install metal detectors to screen out weapons.
Early Tuesday morning, Chris Fenning, 55, shot himself to death at the bedside of his deceased mother.
In April 2005, Tony L. Ross, 40, shot at his girlfriend in her fourth-floor room after she rejected a proposal of marriage. Ross was arrested by hospital security and city police in the lobby as he tried to leave the hospital.
Although rare, those two instances show how easy it is for people to carry a concealed weapon inside a hospital.
But Shawna Burke, a spokeswoman for LaPorte Hospital, said there are no plans to install metal detectors in the hospital.
“They disrupt the healing environment,” said Burke. “And restricting entry to one point of access and requiring everyone to go through a metal detector goes against a hospital's mission.”
That argument, said Rick Wade, senior vice president for communication for the American Hospital Association in Washington, D.C., is common at all hospitals. Wade said his organization represents 4,800 hospitals of all sizes and not one has a metal detector.
“First of all, shootings in hospitals are uncommon,” Wade said. “I don't know of any hospital that has metal detectors. That flies in the face of what a hospital should be, and it sends the wrong message to families.”
Still, Wade said the issue is regularly discussed by the association and its member hospitals, but each time it comes down to hospitals deciding what is best to serve the needs of their patients.
“I've heard this debate,” he said, “and hospitals just don't want to go through with it (installing metal detectors). They've done everything but that.”
Wade said hospitals are concerned about security and have taken other measures. Hidden cameras are now common throughout hospitals, and plain clothes security is everywhere. Wade said some hospitals have security walk the halls dressed as doctors in lab coats.
At St. Anthony Memorial in Michigan City, spokeswoman Marlena Lagina-Kleine offered a flat, “No,” when asked if the hospital planned to install metal detectors.
“We always scrutinize the building,” she said, “but we believe we have a good system in place.”
Lagina-Kleine said St. Anthony has what it calls a Code Silver that's implemented anytime the hospital believes someone is inside who might be carrying a gun or other weapon.
Although there have not been any shootings inside St. Anthony, more than a decade ago, a man was shot in the buttocks just outside the entrance to the emergency room.
Although he was not familiar with the shootings at LaPorte Hospital, Wade said he is familiar with incidents at other hospitals. He said many hospitals are in dangerous neighborhoods, and some unique solutions have been presented to head off violence. At Mt. Sinai Hospital in Chicago, rival gang members were approached to work out a security deal to keep incidents from happening inside.
Contact City Editor Rick A. Richards at rrichards@thenewsdispatch.com.
By Rick A. Richards, The News-Dispatch
The second shooting in a patient room at LaPorte Hospital in 23 months has raised questions about hospital security, although LaPorte Hospital officials maintain there is no need to install metal detectors to screen out weapons.
Early Tuesday morning, Chris Fenning, 55, shot himself to death at the bedside of his deceased mother.
In April 2005, Tony L. Ross, 40, shot at his girlfriend in her fourth-floor room after she rejected a proposal of marriage. Ross was arrested by hospital security and city police in the lobby as he tried to leave the hospital.
Although rare, those two instances show how easy it is for people to carry a concealed weapon inside a hospital.
But Shawna Burke, a spokeswoman for LaPorte Hospital, said there are no plans to install metal detectors in the hospital.
“They disrupt the healing environment,” said Burke. “And restricting entry to one point of access and requiring everyone to go through a metal detector goes against a hospital's mission.”
That argument, said Rick Wade, senior vice president for communication for the American Hospital Association in Washington, D.C., is common at all hospitals. Wade said his organization represents 4,800 hospitals of all sizes and not one has a metal detector.
“First of all, shootings in hospitals are uncommon,” Wade said. “I don't know of any hospital that has metal detectors. That flies in the face of what a hospital should be, and it sends the wrong message to families.”
Still, Wade said the issue is regularly discussed by the association and its member hospitals, but each time it comes down to hospitals deciding what is best to serve the needs of their patients.
“I've heard this debate,” he said, “and hospitals just don't want to go through with it (installing metal detectors). They've done everything but that.”
Wade said hospitals are concerned about security and have taken other measures. Hidden cameras are now common throughout hospitals, and plain clothes security is everywhere. Wade said some hospitals have security walk the halls dressed as doctors in lab coats.
At St. Anthony Memorial in Michigan City, spokeswoman Marlena Lagina-Kleine offered a flat, “No,” when asked if the hospital planned to install metal detectors.
“We always scrutinize the building,” she said, “but we believe we have a good system in place.”
Lagina-Kleine said St. Anthony has what it calls a Code Silver that's implemented anytime the hospital believes someone is inside who might be carrying a gun or other weapon.
Although there have not been any shootings inside St. Anthony, more than a decade ago, a man was shot in the buttocks just outside the entrance to the emergency room.
Although he was not familiar with the shootings at LaPorte Hospital, Wade said he is familiar with incidents at other hospitals. He said many hospitals are in dangerous neighborhoods, and some unique solutions have been presented to head off violence. At Mt. Sinai Hospital in Chicago, rival gang members were approached to work out a security deal to keep incidents from happening inside.
Contact City Editor Rick A. Richards at rrichards@thenewsdispatch.com.