SECURING THE FUTURE
HDGH re-establishes in-house team
A move by Hotel-dieu Grace Healthcare to bring security back in house after years of contracting out those services is officially in place, the hospital will announce on Wednesday.
Bringing security back internally will give the hospital full control of staff in place so there will be permanent “high-quality individuals,” while also ensuring they are trained on how best to handle the hospital’s unique set of programs, which include a wide variety of mental-health support services.
“We have dealt with a private service provider and they were great to work with,” said Bill Marra, the hospital’s vice-president of external affairs, which includes responsibility for security. “But with that there has been high turnover and we discovered the last few years we need a more consistent approach.
“By hiring our own security team we can utilize far more specialized training. We will be looking at hiring individuals who are focused on security as a career. We want them to become a long-term part of our caring team in providing security and safety.”
The new HDGH security team will feature 35 men and women as staff members plus a newly renovated 2,500-square-foot security operations centre. The centre will include eight monitors, three workstations and 14 computers.
The new security operations at the hospital will include training space, a meeting room, equipment and a personal body alarm system for each security officer.
Among new training initiatives will be non-violent crisis intervention, effective communications, Criminal Code applications, first aid and CPR.
“Our HDGH guards see and monitor a lot on our west-end campus, individuals facing end-oflife, mental-health and addictions issues, child and youth mental health, behavioural concerns and those with stressors from physical trauma,” said Pat Keane, the hospital’s manager of security.
“We aren’t just building a team, but building a program, a culture, a new way of safety and security.”
Bringing its security team back in house will come with an added cost at the hospital, which includes a $600,000 one-time capital investment to create the security operations centre.
There will also be an increased annual operational cost of $400,000 to bring the security department’s operating budget up to $1.8 million.
Workplace violence issues, at times related to patient outbursts, have been a growing concern among health-care employees across Ontario. That has led to a handful of hospitals elsewhere beginning to make similar moves of creating new in-house security teams instead of contracting out the service.
“Great security leaders translate that mission into day-to-day security operations, allowing the frontline (employees) to focus on patient care, feeling they are in a safe environment,” said Erna Bujna, a health and safety specialist with the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) and its lead for workplace violence.
“A hospital’s security team should always be a part of a patient’s circle of care and that’s what we are seeing here at HDGH.”
The west-end hospital has continued to grow in recent years to now include seven buildings over 33 acres and 750,000 square feet, Marra said.
Security will be called upon off-site at the downtown Crisis and Mental Wellness Centre — a joint effort with Canadian Mental Health Association located in the 700 block of Ouellette Avenue.
“Our corporate plan is to be known as the safest hospital for patients, visitors and employees,” Marra said.