HEALTHCARE SECURITY
INDUSTRY ROUNDTABLE: THE FUTURE OF HEALTH-CARE SECURIT Y
By Canadian Security Staff
Canadian Security recently hosted a roundtable discussion with industry leaders, tackling the challenging questions related to the state of security operations in health-care facilities today.
Sponsored by Paladin Security and Xtract One, the roundtable was moderated by Canadian Security editor Neil Sutton and included panelists Tom Taggart, associate director with Paladin Security; Peter Evans, CEO of Xtract One; Braeden Cockburn, fire marshal security practitioner at Trillium Health Partners; and Todd Milne, director of security services and emergency disaster management at Hamilton Health Sciences.
These industry veterans discussed a wide range of topics from protecting staff from violence in the workplace to policy and technology driven solutions, and proper training to face the realities of the healthcare environment today.
A CHANGING LANDSCAPE
The conversation kicked off with all the industry experts in agreement about one thing: violence against staff and security in health-care facilities is on the rise.
“We know that violence in health care is rising across Canada, especially emergency departments and mental health units and in patient care,” Milne said. “Staff are reporting daily incidents ranging from verbal abuse to physical assaults; and hospitals are seeing increased weapons at entry points. Underreporting probably remains common and is masking the true scale of our issue.”
Evans said that increased drug use, a more transitory population, and a loss of connectedness in society for many people
has created a perfect storm making it more difficult for the average person just to cope with day-to-day stressors, like having to go to the hospital and be treated.
In the post-COVID era, health-care professionals are experiencing a significant increase in violent incidents, and it’s not just in the emergency departments, it’s also clinical front-facing staff.
“Increased levels of agitation from just general wait-time delays, patients not getting the acceptable service that they deem is to be part of their expected levels of service. There’s just an increased amount of anxiety and social disorder through the health-care environment,” Cockburn said.
One of the reasons for the increased stress levels in hospitals is the nationwide shortage of family doctors, which leads to more people going to hospitals to get treatments they could otherwise get with their doctor.
“You see overcrowding, extended wait times, people getting upset,” Taggart said, adding that many people arriving at hospitals come with a lot of fear and anxiety, possibly from past traumas. “Also, the homeless crisis that I know is right across Canada right now is driving up ED visits and causing issues in even other parts of the hospitals with trespassing, theft and drug use.”
ADDRESSING THE ISSUES
When asked how these experts are addressing violent situations in healthcare facilities, the answers were a combination of technology driven and policy driven solutions. For Taggart, it starts with training.
“Every facility and organization has a different philosophy behind training,” he said, adding that frontline clinical staff need to receive that training as well. “Ideally before they actually work their
first shift, because once they start working it’s really hard to pull them off the floor to get any training.”
The frontline staff’s training for these situations should work cohesively with the security staff so each are aware of the other how the other party will be responding to incidents and understand each other’s roles.
“Prevention obviously is the ideal way to do that. I’ve seen where we, or other organizations, have placed a hybrid security role in the ED waiting room where a lot of violence does start to happen,” Taggart said. “They’re focused on customer service, de-escalation, almost like a liaison.”
Evans is a proponent of utilizing the latest technologies as deterrents, as it is a part of an equation of people, processes and technology for creating effective security solutions. Currently based in the U.S., one technology he has found to be highly effective as a preventative measure to reduce the number of violent incidents in hospitals is facial recognition software.
“We are using facial recognition to identify an individual as they’re approaching the door and knowing this is a known gang member; this is a known felon; this is a known human trafficker; even before they’ve entered into the premises,” Evans said.
Weapon detection technologies have also become increasingly important for alerting guards of potential dangers and have been found to be incredibly effective.
“They ran a pilot for 90 days with us and 5.6 per cent of all the individuals walking through the door had a weapon,” said Evans, citing data based on a recent customer experience in the U.S. “Another five per cent of the people who hit the door, saw our system, turned around, went back to the car and came back in. So, there was a preventative benefit out of having systems like this in place,” Evans said. “Now, we don’t know if the deterrent effect was they had guns, they had alcohol, they had weed, but it stopped bad things coming into the environment.”
The range of weapons identified on individuals entering the health-care facility ranged from firearms to knives, pepper
sprays, mace, nunchucks, and more.
“One guy was actually carrying a crossbow to his doctor’s appointment, which just completely blew us away,” Evans said.
It is Evans’ belief that technologies like these will become mandatory in a wide variety of environments.
“California is now mandated that every hospital has to protect itself from weapons at every entrance by 2027. We’ve seen the same thing happening in Michigan and in Minnesota. We’ve seen it happening in high schools. I think you’re just going to see society saying in the same way that we have to have sprinkler systems, access points, cameras and badge access controls, it’s going to be part of the norm of the construction of the facility.”
FINDING THE RIGHT FITS
Trillium Health Partners is actively looking at technology options and trying to find the best fits for its current sites as well as its future sites, which include one facility currently under construction and another in the groundbreaking phase.
Cockburn said his organization is already in talks with suppliers of various detection technologies.
“Technology is always going to be at the forefront,” he said, adding that it is vital that his organization understands what is out there and what’s going to be the best fit for the organization as a whole.
Since implementing Security Real-time Location Systems (RLTS) at Hamilton Health Sciences – such as duress badges so staff can call for help with location precision – response times have improved. Another technology that is gaining ground in Ontario is body-worn cameras.
“In Ontario, there’s been about four different health-care organizations now that have adopted body worn cameras; and I see that as a really strong tool as far as helping with behaviour modification,” Milne said. “It really does paint a true picture and tells the story of what’s taking place, and I think that’s also curving some of those violent outbreaks.”
LONG-TERM OUTLOOK
When asked about the long-term trends in technologies for helping keep health-care
and security personnel safe, Evans said AI will play a role, but that it still needs a human in the loop. He believes we will see more predictive models and data collection together, so that everything about an individual will be known before they even entered the facility – what their history is, any issues they’ve had previously, any complaints, any social media outbursts, etc. It will also continue to be used for weapons identification. All of these things will help a security officer get a full profile of an individual.
“I think you’re going to see more integration and more use of AI tools to allow massive scalability of things like security across broad environments,” Evans said.
In addition to working with companies like Paladin Security, Milne said staff need to be equipped with additional in-house training.
Cockburn added: “Let’s get them trained. Let’s get them educated. Let’s get them ready to face those situations, so you’re not going to face the staff burnout.”
In terms of servicing clients and preparing guards, Taggart added that it’s about having a partnership and being invested in that program.
“Training your guards to be proactive in their patrols and identify these issues ahead of time … those are huge proactive things that need to get done,” he said.
Taggart stressed the importance of everybody in the organization getting involved in the security program for their own safety in the workplace.
“It’s not just doors that don’t fall shut. It’s doors that are propped open because it’s the easy way to get out and have a cigarette or go to your car. Or leaving your office door wide open with confidential patient information in it, or valuables that could be stolen when you’re not in there. Everybody really needs to play a proactive role,” Taggart said.
“A lot of it gets focused on the security department. They certainly bear the brunt of it, but everybody has to be involved in the security and safety of those facilities, those patients, the staff, everything.”
Healthcare Facilities Increasingly Using Technology to Ensure Physical Security
As stated in an article published on Healthy Debate, a website dedicated to journalism about healthcare in Canada, hospital staff members experience violent acts in their workplace on a daily basis.
In order to deal with an increase in such safety incidents, healthcare establishments are opting for more robust security solutions. Being in the delicate position of having to treat a patient even if they are verbally abusive or physically aggressive, healthcare providers are banking on more efficient high-tech tools to protect their staff.
The essential human element in managing security risks
In addition to acting as deterrents to verbal abuse, physical aggression, and theft, security guards also provide a comforting presence for patients and their families, in a setting where emotions can run high while morale may be at its lowest level.
Security guards who work in hospitals receive special training to better handle sensitive situations and effectively deescalate conflicts, averting acts of violence. They bring safety and a feeling of security in an environment that requires as much empathy as authority.
GardaWorld Security professionals can accurately identify physical security risks, and intervene to defuse the situation, preventing physical harm to hospital staff or any damage to medical equipment.
Using technology to protect lives and prevent losses
Powerful tools like video surveillance cameras help guards cover more ground, making rapid response much easier.
“AI-powered video analytics is especially
helpful in hospitals, as it can recognize unusual or suspicious behavior such as loitering, or detect incidents like a patient collapsing. The system is programmed to send a real-time alert to enable immediate intervention,” explained Art Katsaga, Director of Client Relations at GardaWorld Security.
To mitigate financial losses and enhance overall safety, hospitals and healthcare centers are increasingly adopting advanced security technologies such as AI-driven analytics to detect threats in real time, and high-definition video surveillance that provides reliable evidence in the event of an investigation or a lawsuit. In parallel, Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS) are used to ensure patient safety— by monitoring infants for their protection or preventing patient wandering—and to support efficient staff coordination.
Lately, Emergency Departments in certain Canadian hospitals have introduced metal detectors or AI-powered weapons detection systems to prevent serious incidents in the face of rising violence.
As mentioned in a CTV News article, AI distinguishes knives and guns from other harmless metallic items like keys or cellphones, so security guards can take
the appropriate action when a potentially dangerous weapon is found.
As reported by Global News, Windsor Regional Hospital offers a compelling example of the benefits of adopting advanced weapons detection technology. After implementing such systems, the hospital initially recorded an increase in prohibited items being detected—helping to prevent potential harm. Over time, these detections significantly decreased as visitors became more familiar with the screening procedures and hospital rules.
How GardaWorld Security helps healthcare establishments to ensure safety
At GardaWorld Security, human expertise and intelligent technology work in synergy to redefine healthcare safety.
Our guards working in hospitals attended specialized courses, including traumainformed care training, to be able to offer compassionate security services to patients and their loved ones at a vulnerable moment in their lives, in addition to safeguarding medical staff.
With more than 30 years of experience in the healthcare sector, we provide trusted protection services to help you solve any physical security issue. From waiting rooms to administrative offices or parking lots, your premises will always feel safe with our customized solutions that range from specially trained security guards and mobile patrols to high-tech systems like AI analytics, video surveillance and 24/7 monitoring centers.
Talk to one of our experts today to protect your staff, patients and equipment, while preventing financial losses and avoiding lawsuits.
Comprehensive healthcare security solutions that prioritize safety and care
We combine our commitment to compassionate care with best-in-class security services to protect patients, professionals, and visitors at facilities across the country.
Specialized healthcare training for security guards
Integration of advanced security systems and technology
Cyber security risk assessments
Staffing & recruitment for your admin staff with TalentWorld
How Modern Access Control is Securing Canadian Healthcare’s Future
As Canadian healthcare networks expand across provinces and territories, securing medical facilities has become increasingly complex. Medical professionals move between multiple locations, temporary staff cycle through constantly, and sensitive areas require protection—all while outdated access systems struggle to keep up with the operational and financial demands.
The answer for many facilities has been keyless entry systems that offer more than convenience. They’re proving to be a practical, cost-effective way to build security infrastructure that can actually grow with the organization.
The High Cost of Outdated Access Systems
Physical keys remain surprisingly common, despite their limitations. Think about physicians and specialists rotating through multiple sites, or the constant turnover of staff and contract workers. Every lost key creates a security gap that requires replacing locks.
“When doctors fail to return physical keys after their rotation, locks must be replaced to maintain security,” says Kyle Pfeiffer, Industry Solutions Leader, Healthcare, at Salto. “Facilities using traditional locks and keys can spend tens of thousands of dollars or more annually on management and replacement.”
Then there’s what you can’t see. Physical keys offer no data about who entered a room or when. Even older digital systems often have audit trails that are cumbersome to access and nearly impossible to manage in real-time across multiple facilities.
First-generation digital and wired electronic systems were an improvement over physical keys, but they often operate in isolation. Scaling them is difficult, and they can’t adapt quickly to changing needs.
The Digital Transformation of Access
Modern access control takes a different approach. Security administrators can modify credentials instantly, grant or revoke access remotely from one platform, and skip the lock replacement process entirely. The result is a system that’s unified, intelligent, and adaptable.
For Canadian healthcare, the advantages are clear:
Unified System Management: One platform handles access rights everywhere—from major urban hospitals to remote rural clinics—eliminating data silos.
Streamlined Professional Access: Staff use a single credential (a smart card, or digital key on a mobile phone or wearable) to move freely between areas and facilities.
Enhanced Monitoring and Data: Real-time audit trails show exactly who accessed medication rooms, patient records, or equipment storage, and when.
Simplified Credential Management: Updating access for new hires, departing employees, or visiting specialists happens instantly, without managing physical keys.
Compliance with Canadian Privacy Regulations: Meeting provincial healthcare privacy laws and PIPEDA requirements is non-negotiable. Modern access control helps demonstrate compliance by securing the physical spaces where patient records and data live.
A Practical Path to Modernization
“Integrating keyless entry into existing infrastructure enables healthcare professionals to effectively manage facility access while maintaining efficient movement of staff and patients,” Pfeiffer explains.
Replacing entire systems isn’t realistic for most facilities. Solutions like Salto’s Virtual Network (SVN) work differently. Wireless locks and smart credentials deliver networked system benefits without the cost and disruption of hardwiring every door.
“The wire-free installation process is straightforward and cost-effective,” Pfeiffer notes. “The return on investment typically occurs within the first year, with continued savings in subsequent years.”
As healthcare delivery continues to evolve, advanced access control is becoming essential infrastructure rather than an optional upgrade— providing the security, efficiency, and flexibility that modern healthcare demands.
Protect what matters the most—patients, staff, visitors, and property.
Salto delivers modern access control and visitor management solutions designed to meet the unique requirements of the healthcare industry: hospitals, medical office buildings, urgent care facilities, laboratories, pharmacies, assisted living centers, and more.
The Right Diagnosis for Your Security: Hanwha Vision’s Healthcare Surveillance Solutions
Healthcare facilities are facing growing pressure across multiple areas to enhance security, improve clinical safety, maintain regulatory compliance, and streamline operations.
The primary recurring issues facing hospitals are patient safety—particularly falls and elopement—and staff safety; forensic burden and video review time when incidents occur; drug diversion threats; and the impact of staff shortages on patient care. To address these challenges, hospitals are increasingly turning to intelligent, AI-powered surveillance technologies.
Hanwha Vision offers a comprehensive platform of AI-enabled cameras, analytics at the edge, metadata and attribute search, device-health monitoring, and hardened cybersecurity. The analytics classify objects and people by attributes (like top/bottom colors, object type, direction of travel) and they store metadata, making VMS searches incredibly efficient. Instead of scrolling for hours, you can filter by attributes + time window and get thumbnails of the matching results. This frees the security/forensics team to focus on investigating rather than searching.
AI is also useful for addressing patient elopement, or unauthorized departure, which presents a liability and a patient-safety concern. Using our AI solution and third-party partner AI analytics, teams can set virtual zones. An alert is triggered when someone crosses a boundary or exhibits behavior suggesting they might leave or linger near an exit.
Cameras in rooms are quickly becoming a standard in healthcare. Every hospital is considering the room of the future, which includes a camera, speaker, and a “Smart” TV. When a patient presses their pillow speaker button, instead of a physical nurse entering the room, a virtual nurse, either down the hall or miles away in a clinical command center, will answer the call, appearing on the screen using the Hanwha camera and speaker in the room. The virtual nurse quickly understands what
the patient needs and then communicates with the patient’s care team on the floor.
Hanwha Vision’s new Wisenet 9 cameras use dynamic privacy masking as a built-in edge analytics feature to maintain HIPAA compliance. Hospitals can blur out faces or bodies either when live video streams to a large external monitor or in certain observation rooms, but the unblurred version is saved in their data center.
Drug diversion is increasingly a threat to operations and compliance. Hanwha’s AI-enabled camera and sensor solution monitors key areas such as pharmaceutical storage, dispensing cabinets, waste zones, and transport walkways. Our system detects behaviors like staff making frequent visits without entering their information into medication dispenser machines, handling drugs during odd hours, bypassing dual authentication, or failing to document waste. When suspicious activity occurs, the system triggers an alert and logs metadata for investigations.
The shortage of clinicians and increasing demands are driving hospitals toward remote and virtual monitoring. Hanwha’s Virtual Care solution integrates with Epic ECAL Virtual Health Platform and other third-party virtual nursing platforms, allowing clinicians to monitor multiple rooms and patients from a central station, perform virtual rounding, teleconsultations, virtual nursing, and behavioral health monitoring.
Hospitals choose Hanwha Vision because we’re not just another camera company; we build smart, AI-driven solutions made for healthcare. We make everything ourselves, from our cameras to our chips to our lenses, all built in Hanwha-owned factories using Hanwha-made equipment. That means total control over quality, cybersecurity, and reliability.
Hanwha Vision is helping hospitals create safer, smarter, and more connected environments for everyone.
streamline operations.
Learn how Hanwha Vision creates safer and smarter healthcare environments for everyone.
Addressing Violence in Healthcare Environments
Hospitals are intended to be places of healing, yet for many healthcare workers, they are environments of daily risk. Violence in healthcare is a growing crisis across Canada, affecting not only large urban hospitals but also rural facilities, clinics, long-term care facilities, and ambulatory care centers.
Frontline staff, including nurses, physicians, and healthcare security personnel, face aggression in virtually every care setting. While emergency departments and ICUs are known hotspots due to patients in pain, confusion, or distress, violence also occurs on general medical-surgical floors. It is not limited to behavioural health patients or those under the influence; it spans all demographics and communities.
One Canadian hospital reported nearly two violent incidents daily, including a nurse being assaulted at the admissions desk. Outpatient clinics, especially high-volume and those offering sensitive services, also report frequent verbal abuse and physical assaults, often triggered by long wait times and emotionally charged situations.
Paladin Security has earned an international reputation for transforming security culture.
Superior Training – Trauma Informed Care
Our success is built on delivering confident, capable, and compassionate healthcare security professionals – selected through a rigorous hiring process and equipped with extensive healthcare-specific training that prepares them to contribute meaningfully to the care environment.
Superior training and trauma informed care are at the heart of addressing many aspects of potential and actual instances of violence. Our Security Officers take an empathy-led approach when engaging with individuals who are marginalized, unhoused, struggling with addiction, or experiencing mental health challenges. By recognizing their humanity and leading with respect, we support de-escalation, reduce the risk of violence, and foster better outcomes for all involved.
Our Security Officers are trained to de-escalate situations, to recognize
and appropriate interact with individuals that exhibit potential mental health issues, or disruptive behaviour. Our industry-leading training consists of cultural sensitivity, neurodiversity awareness and communication methods that are appropriate for diverse and challenging situations.
Understanding The Complex Threat Environment
Hospitals and related facilities present the need for comprehensive and nimble security programs that will plan and prepare for countless potential threats such as weapons entering the facilities, safety in parking lots and even protestors on site. The use of leading-edge technology such as advanced weapons detection systems and AI-enabled mobile surveillance units are important considerations in the modern healthcare security program.
At Paladin, we take an all-hazards risk review approach to the development of our healthcare security programs that bring together our leading experts, highly trained Security Officers and Supervisors, mobile patrol, surveillance technology, and 24/7/365 Operations Centres to deliver safe outcomes for our healthcare partners. Our customized reporting and proprietary management tools also demonstrate our understanding of hospital operations management.
In a field where top-tier expertise, leading-edge training, and exceptional customer service are essential, we remain steadfast in our commitment to exceeding industry standards and fostering safe, supportive environments of care. Experience the Paladin Difference.
About Paladin Security
Established in 1976, Paladin Security is privately-owned with 90+ offices, 30,000 employees and coast-to-coast operations throughout North American. Each office is home to experienced leadership team members and Security Offices that are committed to clients and local communities. Paladin has been named a Platinum Member of the Canada’s Best Managed Companies since 2012 and has been recognized by the Canada’s Most Admired Corporate Cultures program since 2013.
STANDARD OF SECURITY A HIGHER
Our experience in healthcare security is second-to-none. We currently serve over 500 facilities throughout North America. These facilities range from large inner-city emergency departments, trauma, and mental health centres to pediatric and behavioural facilities in suburban and rural settings. Partner with Paladin Security to build a customized, professional security solution that enhances safety; strengthens community trust; and aligns with your mission, values, and unique goals.
Experience the Paladin Di erence
Unrivalled depth of expertise in securing your healthcare institutions
Customized security services that include risk and threat management
Highly trained Security Professionals
Innovative training specific to the healthcare environment
Best-in-class operations that are tracked by reliable metrics
Leading-edge, proprietary technology solutions
Collaborative creation, implementation and ongoing management of effective security programs
Balancing Care and Control: How Integrated Access Systems Strengthen Healthcare Security
Healthcare never sleeps. Hospitals operate 24/7, balancing patient safety, clinical efficiency, and data security. This nonstop environment makes protecting people, property, and information uniquely challenging. HID’s healthcare solutions address this complexity by merging convenience with compliance through a unified, intelligent access ecosystem.
The Continuous Care Challenge
Security in healthcare cannot come at the cost of patient care. Clinicians, patients, visitors, and contractors all require tailored access—fast, secure, and compliant. From short-term contractors to long-term staff, access needs vary widely. That’s why a streamlined, tiered credentialing approach is essential. HID’s modular platform offers this flexibility, supporting both mobile and physical credentials to ensure hospitals maintain uninterrupted care delivery.
The challenge is particularly acute for large healthcare systems managing multiple sites and legacy systems. Mergers and acquisitions often leave organizations with fragmented platforms and inconsistent credentials. HID helps unify these environments efficiently, avoiding costly rip-and-replace scenarios through scalable, modular solutions.
The One-Card Vision
The “one-card” concept—a single credential enabling both physical and logical access—is redefining healthcare security. Clinicians can open doors, log into systems, and access medication data with one secure identity. HID’s Seos® and Signo® solutions, trusted by over a thousand healthcare facilities, make this vision practical, offering interoperability and strong encryption without sacrificing usability.
Integrating Logical and Physical Access
Historically, logical (IT) and physical (building) security ran on separate systems. Today’s interconnected healthcare operations require convergence. HID’s platforms integrate identity management across digital and physical domains, creating unified audit trails and simplifying compliance with HIPAA, OSHA, and Joint Commission standards. This not only strengthens infrastructure protection but also streamlines credentialing and reduces administrative burden.
Protecting Every User, Every Area
Hospitals require precision in access control—every role must correspond to the right permissions:
• Clinicians get instant, secure access to authorized zones and systems.
• Contractors receive temporary, time-limited credentials.
• Visitors are verified, badged, and monitored.
• Patients benefit from real-time location tracking and biometric safety features.
Such granularity minimizes risk while maintaining operational efficiency, ensuring security support rather than slowing clinical workflows.
Future-Ready, Modular Design
Hospitals can’t afford downtime. HID’s modular design supports phased implementation—replacing readers, upgrading credentials, or adding mobile and biometric layers as needed. This future-proof approach adapts to each organization’s pace, enabling healthcare systems to evolve security without disruption.
Compliance, Efficiency, and Trust
Automation within HID’s integrated ecosystem delivers audit-ready reporting, reduces manual tasks, and supports BYOD and union policies. Customers have reported up to 30% fewer misidentification incidents, 20+ minutes saved per staff shift, and 50% faster audit preparation. These efficiency gains translate directly into more time for patient care and less time managing systems.
The Path Forward
Enhancing healthcare security doesn’t demand a full system overhaul. HID recommends a three-step approach:
1 Assessment: Identify vulnerabilities and compliance gaps.
2 Custom Solution: Align security upgrades with clinical and operational goals.
3 Seamless Implementation: Deploy without disrupting care delivery.
Healthcare’s mission is healing—but it begins with safety. HID’s integrated access solutions create trusted, frictionless environments where clinicians focus on care, not credentials. By uniting physical and logical access under one secure identity, healthcare facilities can protect patients, empower staff, and operate with confidence—proving that smart security strengthens, not hinders, compassionate care.
Presence with Purpose: How Securiguard is Redefining Training for Healthcare Security
Today’s healthcare security professionals provide services beyond the protection of healthcare facilities; they are vital partners in patient and staff safety. In an environment where emotions run high, the ability of security professionals to communicate with empathy, manage crises, and collaborate with clinical staff is essential. Securiguard believes that effective healthcare security training emphasizes emotional intelligence, trauma informed care, professionalism, and compassionate service as critical response tools for frontline security teams.
The Power of Empathetic Communication
Empathy is the cornerstone of modern healthcare security. Our healthcare partners serve individuals in distress, patients facing pain and families coping with fear. A security professional’s response can either diffuse a volatile situation or escalate it.
Securiguard ensures that our security professionals receive top tier training from in-house instructors that prioritizes empathetic communication, teaching security professionals to listen actively, speak calmly, and acknowledge the emotions of those they encounter. These soft skills help foster trust and de-escalate tension, reinforcing the compassionate values that define healthcare. Securiguard also prioritizes the care and safety of our employees, ensuring that they can carry out their duties feeling safe and supported.
Verbal De-escalation and Crisis Intervention
Security teams must be skilled in recognizing early signs of crisis and using verbal strategies to de-escalate potential conflicts. Securiguard’s healthcare security training program reinforces techniques including maintaining open body language, offering choices, and respecting personal space as these strategies can turn a volatile encounter into a manageable conversation.
Our proprietary healthcare security training builds on these intervention skills, giving our security professionals the tools to safely and compassionately respond to individuals in acute distress, including those experiencing behavioural health crises or trauma. The Securiguard approach ensures patient and staff safety while preserving dignity—both vital in a healing environment.
Collaboration Between Securiguard and our Clinical Partners
Securiguard and our valued healthcare partners share one mission: we make people feel safe. To achieve this, we strive to operate as a unified team. Cross-training and joint mock exercises help our security teams to both understand and meet the needs of our clinical partners. When clinical and security teams collaborate on shared goals, the outcome is efficient, safer, and more compassionate care.
Professionalism and the Ambassador Role
We are proud that our security professionals are often the first and last representatives of the hospital that patients and visitors meet. At Securiguard, we contend that success starts with recruiting highly talented professionals who understand that appearance, attitude, and communication shape the perception of the entire organization. We ensure our team members are proficient in navigating new trends in technology in order to provide our clients with modern solutions.
Professionalism, courtesy, and strong customer service skills are central pillars of Securiguard Healthcare Security training. Every interaction, whether giving directions, assisting a visitor, or supporting a distressed family member, offers an opportunity to embody the Securiguard values of Respect, Empathy, Accountability, Courtesy and Honesty. Our security professionals, in this sense, are true ambassadors of safety and care.
Conclusion
Modern healthcare security requires more than vigilance; it requires humanity. By emphasizing training in empathetic communication, de-escalation, crisis intervention, and strong collaboration with clinical staff, our Securiguard Healthcare security teams are supporting our clinical partners to create environments that are both secure and compassionate. Securiguard is also committed to modernizing our approach to align with best practices; we are actively pursuing new services including the optional deployment of our nationally certified K9 unit as a proactive value-added service for healthcare environments.
Empowered with these skills, Securiguard upholds not only safety, but the very mission of care and healing within healthcare.
The Unique Challenge of Balancing Open Access with Staff Protection in Healthcare’s Highest-Risk Environment
Emergency physicians experience workplace violence at rates that dwarf other medical specialties. 91% of emergency physicians reported that they or a colleague had been threatened or attacked in the past year. Yet unlike a corporate lobby or stadium entrance, emergency departments can’t implement extensive ingress screening procedures that delay access to life-saving care.
When Standard Security Protocols Fail
Walk-through metal detectors create bottlenecks that conflict with emergency care delivery. A patient experiencing cardiac symptoms, stroke indicators, or severe trauma cannot wait in a security line while others empty pockets and remove belts. Family members arriving during medical emergencies need immediate access to provide consent, medical history, or support to vulnerable patients.
Traditional screening also generates false alerts on the exact items emergency patients routinely carry: medical devices, insulin pumps, mobility aids, medications in metal containers, and personal belongings hastily gathered during crisis situations. Security personnel must choose between thoroughly investigating each alert (creating dangerous delays) or developing dismissive habits that compromise actual threat detection.
The Behavioral Health Factor
Emergency departments serve as de facto mental health crisis centers, particularly in communities with limited psychiatric resources. Individuals experiencing acute psychological distress, substance use crises, or behavioral health emergencies arrive at ED entrances alongside trauma patients and those seeking routine care.
This patient population mix creates threat assessment complexity that goes beyond simple weapons detection. The same individual who needs immediate psychiatric intervention may pose elevated risk to staff. Traditional security measures often escalate rather than de-escalate these situations; ag-
gressive screening procedures can trigger individuals already in crisis, while inadequate screening leaves staff vulnerable.
What Manitoba’s Emergency Departments Discovered
Shared Health Manitoba’s downtown Winnipeg emergency departments faced the challenges of:
• High-risk patient populations
• 24/7 accessibility requirements, and
• staff safety concerns that were affecting recruitment and retention.
Traditional metal detectors weren’t an option, the operational disruption would have compromised patient care.
After implementing AI-powered weapons detection, the facilities achieved security that didn’t impede emergency access. Patients, family members, and visitors moved through screening at natural walking pace carrying phones, medications, and medical devices.
High compliance rates were achieved even among vulnerable populations experiencing mental health crises. The screening didn’t feel institutional or threatening; it simply worked discreetly while people focused on the medical emergency that brought them there.
82% of patients reported feeling safer after the screening was implemented. Perhaps more tellingly, 97% of security staff supported expanding the system.*
Emergency departments don’t need airport-style security. They need systems built for their reality: unpredictable surges, medical device interference, and individuals in crisis walking through the same entrance as potential threats.
With Xtract One
Facilities receive staff protection without compromising immediate access to emergency care. For more information, visit xtractone.com
*taken from a recent Shared Health Manitoba case study
The book discusses the violence that has plagued healthcare for decades. According to the Joint Commission, healthcare workers are around four times as likely to experience workplace violence compared to workers in other industries. Talking about the unknown abuse that occurs between nurses and doctors in the care of patients during surgeries and medical treatments. The authors address these issues and many more while providing current information on each topic and suggesting resolutions and mitigation strategies that assist in reducing the potential for the identified risks from occurring again.
$92.50| Item #1032630656
How will healthcare and specifically healthcare security adapt over the next few years? What tools will be necessary for healthcare security professionals and all security professionals to meet the demands of the transforming security environment?
Healthcare is on a critical path, evolving with the introduction of Obama Care in the United States and now COVID-19 worldwide. Security professionals need new tools and programs to adapt security services to the “New Normal.” As healthcare emerges from pandemic threats, active shooter and workplace violence will re-emerge and new threats related to civil unrest, fraud, mergers, and further financial struggles will change how healthcare security will function.
$80.65 | Item #1032105475
