Working in hospital security taught me a lot about hospitals and just furthered my desire to avoid the places at all costs (unless I'm paid to be there.) Hospitals are dangerous places, even the smaller hospital I'm at now gets a few violent patients each week (nothing in comparison to the legit ghetto-sited facility I used to work at where many shifts were nothing but fights and reports) - and outside the ER nurses and those working the psych units - most hospital employees aren't mentally geared to deal with violence. They have no idea what to do in any sort of emergency beyond a Code Blue, and even when we had legit fires (small ones) no one took fire alarms seriously. Most hospital employees aren't willing to jump into a fight either - they looooove to stand back and watch violence happen - but only a special few are willing to get in and lend a hand, even if one of their own is being assaulted.
The hospitals in the chain I work for take security as a joke for the most part - a necessary evil to satisfy Joint Commission requirements and insurance requirements. Each hospital has its own CEO, but they're all owned by the same company. Out of all the hospitals I know of in that chain in Texas, *one* has armed officers. The hospital I began my career in the field at at least has at least a couple taser toters on shift (I was one before leaving that site) - the hospital I currently work at (very part time now since I'm working regularly for my son's school providing security, and pursuing a college degree) has *no* taser officers, unless the site supervisor (assistant director, this site has a hospital employee as director of security) is on duty, only he is authorized to carry a taser at this facility.
Its illegal for anyone other than law enforcement officers or a security person employed by the facility to carry a firearm into a hospital in Texas, but this is still Texas, and we don't have metal detectors at the entrances. Most people, even LTC (CHL for those not from Texas) holders have no idea where they can and cannot legally carry. When we passed permitless carry, that just means more people carrying guns and not knowing where prohibited places are, or ignoring the signs (not that I am against ignoring signs, frankly I think there should be *no* prohibited places - and only prohibited persons would be those so dangerous they should be locked away from society) -- I'd bet at any given time in the hospitals I've worked at, at least half a dozen or more people are armed excluding the cops bringing people into the ER, or the occasionall officer picking up an extra duty shift babysitting the ER waiting room.
At the hospital I work at now we'd be f0000000000ked if there were an active shooter, because there's typically only two security personnel on duty, and only get an off duty cop working the ER on weekends. Even though local PD has a response time around 3-5 minutes for a 9-1-1 call, that's a lot of dead people potentially. Almost every one of my coworkers also admitted to me if someone started shooting, they are running away as fast as they can - to hell with the patients and staff (at least they're honest.) I'm the only one, other than one supervisor at my old site, who wears armor even though we were unarmed. Company won't issue armor, though they approve concealable armor if provided by the officer.
Training is pathetic for the most part. Only motivated individuals who seek exterior training are worth a damn. Supervisors kept hiring senior citizens, small statured females, or lazy ass hood rats - maybe they're the only ones willing to work the place unarmed, or for the wages offered, or could be some racial / gender bias going on (I know for the later yes, because a certain supervisor doing the hiring is a foookin' horn dog who kept hiring pretty little ladies then running them off when they didn't like being creeped on) -- we are hands on with combative / resistive people, but they kept hiring people with no ability to fight, or no WILL to fight. I dunno how many times during a fight with particularly strong and violent patients I've had to yell and give step by step directions to my partner, while trying to give commands to the individual we were attempting to restrain or control.
Other hospitals here are probably better - at least all the others employ armed officers, which means they have 5X the required classroom training (still not much...) - and those working armed tend to be a little better in general than those working unarmed by choice. In house teams tend to get better training, better pay, and better people than contract security does. If I stay in private security after finishing my degree, it will be because I'm moving to an in-house position with a hospital, or maybe in-house with an educational institution or school district. As much as I poo poo'd above - its a damn fun job, and when I had good partners on shift, things typically went well. A friend of mine just hired on with a hospital in Dallas, in-house, they provide his armor, his gun, his duty gear, uniforms, and the bastard even gets a free meal every shift. We dont' even get a discount (not that the cafeteria stays open for night shifters anyway, the hosptial hates all overnighters I guess.)
Security needs waaaaaaaaaaaay more training than they get, and especially anyone working a sensitive place like a school or hospital should have 10X the training we get or are mandated right now. Active shooter should be done twice a year for these places, as should medical emergency drills. You'd think a hospital would have fast response times for medical emergencies, but you'd be wrong. I've waited ten minutes to get medical teams to respond to a guy having a seizure in a lobby, and five plus minutes to get "rapid response" for a patient who fell down and struck her head on the sidewalk a hundred yards from the ER entrance.
I'm glad your wife's hospital is doing training like this. After the murder of the security officer in Portland last summer, I hoped our facility would 1.) get more training and 2.) reconsider making us armed but neither happened. People are expendable. If it doesn't make for better CMS and JC scores they won't do sheet.
The hospitals in the chain I work for take security as a joke for the most part - a necessary evil to satisfy Joint Commission requirements and insurance requirements. Each hospital has its own CEO, but they're all owned by the same company. Out of all the hospitals I know of in that chain in Texas, *one* has armed officers. The hospital I began my career in the field at at least has at least a couple taser toters on shift (I was one before leaving that site) - the hospital I currently work at (very part time now since I'm working regularly for my son's school providing security, and pursuing a college degree) has *no* taser officers, unless the site supervisor (assistant director, this site has a hospital employee as director of security) is on duty, only he is authorized to carry a taser at this facility.
Its illegal for anyone other than law enforcement officers or a security person employed by the facility to carry a firearm into a hospital in Texas, but this is still Texas, and we don't have metal detectors at the entrances. Most people, even LTC (CHL for those not from Texas) holders have no idea where they can and cannot legally carry. When we passed permitless carry, that just means more people carrying guns and not knowing where prohibited places are, or ignoring the signs (not that I am against ignoring signs, frankly I think there should be *no* prohibited places - and only prohibited persons would be those so dangerous they should be locked away from society) -- I'd bet at any given time in the hospitals I've worked at, at least half a dozen or more people are armed excluding the cops bringing people into the ER, or the occasionall officer picking up an extra duty shift babysitting the ER waiting room.
At the hospital I work at now we'd be f0000000000ked if there were an active shooter, because there's typically only two security personnel on duty, and only get an off duty cop working the ER on weekends. Even though local PD has a response time around 3-5 minutes for a 9-1-1 call, that's a lot of dead people potentially. Almost every one of my coworkers also admitted to me if someone started shooting, they are running away as fast as they can - to hell with the patients and staff (at least they're honest.) I'm the only one, other than one supervisor at my old site, who wears armor even though we were unarmed. Company won't issue armor, though they approve concealable armor if provided by the officer.
Training is pathetic for the most part. Only motivated individuals who seek exterior training are worth a damn. Supervisors kept hiring senior citizens, small statured females, or lazy ass hood rats - maybe they're the only ones willing to work the place unarmed, or for the wages offered, or could be some racial / gender bias going on (I know for the later yes, because a certain supervisor doing the hiring is a foookin' horn dog who kept hiring pretty little ladies then running them off when they didn't like being creeped on) -- we are hands on with combative / resistive people, but they kept hiring people with no ability to fight, or no WILL to fight. I dunno how many times during a fight with particularly strong and violent patients I've had to yell and give step by step directions to my partner, while trying to give commands to the individual we were attempting to restrain or control.
Other hospitals here are probably better - at least all the others employ armed officers, which means they have 5X the required classroom training (still not much...) - and those working armed tend to be a little better in general than those working unarmed by choice. In house teams tend to get better training, better pay, and better people than contract security does. If I stay in private security after finishing my degree, it will be because I'm moving to an in-house position with a hospital, or maybe in-house with an educational institution or school district. As much as I poo poo'd above - its a damn fun job, and when I had good partners on shift, things typically went well. A friend of mine just hired on with a hospital in Dallas, in-house, they provide his armor, his gun, his duty gear, uniforms, and the bastard even gets a free meal every shift. We dont' even get a discount (not that the cafeteria stays open for night shifters anyway, the hosptial hates all overnighters I guess.)
Security needs waaaaaaaaaaaay more training than they get, and especially anyone working a sensitive place like a school or hospital should have 10X the training we get or are mandated right now. Active shooter should be done twice a year for these places, as should medical emergency drills. You'd think a hospital would have fast response times for medical emergencies, but you'd be wrong. I've waited ten minutes to get medical teams to respond to a guy having a seizure in a lobby, and five plus minutes to get "rapid response" for a patient who fell down and struck her head on the sidewalk a hundred yards from the ER entrance.
I'm glad your wife's hospital is doing training like this. After the murder of the security officer in Portland last summer, I hoped our facility would 1.) get more training and 2.) reconsider making us armed but neither happened. People are expendable. If it doesn't make for better CMS and JC scores they won't do sheet.
![[-]](https://www.alpharomeo15.org/images/roundo/collapse_collapsed.png)
