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Hospital Shooting

Nurse Shot and Killed in Hospital, after telling off Supply Worker, who also Shoots another employee before Killing himself.

RISKAlert Report Updated:  March 16, 2018

The shooting took place after long-time nursing supervisor, Nancy Swift, 63, told off Trevis Coleman, a hospital Sterile Supply worker, described as “disgruntled” by police.  After fatally shooting Swift, he shot instrument worker, Tim Isley, who is in critical condition.  Coleman then turned the gun on himself, with a fatal shot to the head.

The incident took place at University of Alabama at Birmingham, Highlands’s hospital in Birmingham, Alabama.  UAB Hospital Vice President Anthony Patterson said, ‘We have extensive security measures in place that include police officers on site 24-7 as well as others that we do not publicly disclose in the interest of safety.

“This is a sad day for Birmingham UAB. We lost a colleague and a friend last night,” UAB Hospital Vice President Anthony Patterson said. “First I want to offer my sincerest condolences to the victims who have suffered and to their family and colleagues who are grieving this senseless loss of life and injury, our highest priority is the health and safety of our patients and employees.”
The surviving victim of the shooting, 28-year-old Timothy Isley, is recovering at UAB Hospital. He was the on-duty instrument management supervisor at the time of the shooting. Isley’s father is a Mayor of Springville, Alabama,

UAB Highlands hospital had metal detectors in use at the time of the workplace violence incident.


LESSONS LEARNED:

  1. ‘Disgruntled’ employees need to have a formal case file opened on them, and their
    behavior monitored, if they have the potential to be a threat.
  2.  Keeping all back entrances locked, and using door alarms, can keep staff, and intruders
    from bringing guns and knives into hospitals.


THANKS FOR READING THE RISKAlert Report
©

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Shooting at University of Cincinnati Medical Center Ends in Suicide

“I thought he was going to kill everyone”, said the witness taking her child to Cincinnati Children’s
Hospital and Medical Center, before a 20-year-old shot and killed himself after shooting a University of
Cinncinnati Health security guard inside the UC psychiatric emergency services facility.

The man the witness saw was Isaiah Currie, 20, who eventually shot himself after shooting a UC Health security
guard inside the psychiatric emergency services facility on Burnet Avenue.

“He was focused. It was, ‘I’m here to do what I need to do and that’s it,'” she said. “I see him do this and
then drop (the gun) down and then I see the concrete come up, where the bullet had hit the concrete.
I thought he was on his way into the facility and I thought, ‘Oh, my god, he is going to kill everybody
.'”

At this point, the witness called 911 to report the suspect. Authorities didn’t know where or how Currie
obtained the two handguns he carried into the lobby Wednesday at UC Medical Center’s Emergency Psychiatric
Services. Cincinnati Police Eliot Isaac said at news conference Thursday that one of the guns had been
reported stolen in Kentucky.

Currie, 20, who had a history of mental illness, shot the security officer twice in the torso, before turning the gun on himself. The officer was reported to be seriously injured.

LESSONS LEARNED:

1. Even when the witness saw the shooter advancing on the hospital, and called 911 – IT WAS ALREADY TOO LATE! Police could not get there in time to prevent the shooting. For an Emergency Psychiatric
facility, use of metal detectors is a MUST HAVE.

THANKS FOR READING THE RISKAlert Report

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RISKAlert Case Study #841 – Physician Shot & Killed in Metairie

Dateline:  March 25, 2016 – New Orleans, Louisiana

A local Doctor was shot and killed by a patient while he treated others in his office near East Jefferson General Hospital in New Orleans yesterday.

The 73-year old shooter walked into the doctor’s office, and killed the doctor with a single shot to the head.  He then ran out of the office and into a Wendy’s restaurant.  Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office deputies were nearby and they responded and chased the shooter into a nearby Wendy’s restaurant, where the shooter killed himself by putting the gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger.

The doctor, 75-year old Dr. Elbert Goodier, a urologist,  was treating patients at the time of the shooting.  Colleagues said that Dr. Goodier was a very kind and popular physician.  The shooter’s family said that the shooter had been treated by Dr. Goodier in the past.  While the shooter did not have a criminal background, his family said that he had suffered from mental illness in the past.

Dr. Goodier had practiced for 50 years in the New Orleans area, according to East Jefferson General Hospital.

According to Wendy’s employees, a woman was placing her order when
the shooter pulled the triggeWendysShooter-NOLAr as the deputies advanced on him.   The man’s body remained inside of Wendy’s more than an hour after the shootings. Yellow police tape cordoned off the parking lot and the hospital’s exit lanes. Some workers and patrons were also still in the building as of 4 p.m., speaking with
investigators. Outside, other workers, concerned relatives and onlookers watched.

This type of shooting, the Baby Boomer Shooter, is the second attack on a urologist, and one in an increasing number of seniors who attack their physicians.  Another shooter killed his urologist in Reno, Nevada and injured two others before taking his own life. The shooter said had struggled for 3 years with ailments resulting from a botched vasectomy, according to messages he posted on an online support group and a law enforcement investigation.


Lesson Learned
:

While doctors have not been a target in the past, they have been shot and killed recently by patients unhappy with medical results.  All hospitals and medical offices should review their access controls systems, based on the increasing, and alarming rate of attacks on healthcare workers.

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Doctor Shot and Killed in Grudge Shooting Over “Mom”

RISKAlert- Active Shooter   No. 625,   January 21, 2015, Boston, Mass.

Middle-Aged Shooter kills Cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and then Kills
Himself, in an apparent Grudge Shooting Because the Doctor had Operated on his Mother.

On Tuesday morning on Jan. 21, at 11 am, Stephen Pasceri, 55, walked into the Shapiro Center
at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and asked to see cardiologist, Dr. Michael J. Davidson.  When
he saw Dr. Davidson, outside of an exam, he shot him twice, critically injuring him.

Dr. Davidson later died from his injuries. Pasceri then went to the 2nd floor and killed himself with a gunshot
to the head.  Later, it was discovered that Dr. Davidson had operated on Pasceri’s mother, Marguerite, and
she had died on November 15, 2014. Pasceri’s sister was quoted as saying, “He loved his mom, and he
loved her very much. He appeared 
to be handling her death well,” the sister said of her brother.

“Everything seemed to be going really well. I have no idea why he snapped like this.
He was a great guy. He took care of his family, he had a beautiful house and he has four
beautiful children. 
He was an upstanding citizen.”

The hospital locked down and rushed Dr. Davidson into surgery, but he died during the night from his injuries.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s COO said the hospital was one of the first to institute an active shooter
training program. The hospital does not use metal detectors.

Lessons Learned :    “A is for Access Control”

1.  Metal Detectors can be are a reliable tool to Prevent In-Hospital Shootings.

2.  Active Shooter Drills are NOT ENOUGH as these incidents unfold in just a few minutes.

3.  Installing ‘NO WEAPONS’ Signage at Entrances can be a deterrent to these first time shooters.

Despite having a good job, family, and a beautiful home, when confronted with a mid-life crisis, his mother’s
death, another middle-aged  shooter goes to a hospital and shoots the doctor, in a scenario that resembles
the 
Johns Hopkins shooting in 2010.   To protect staff and patients, hospitals will have to increase their
security protective measures, including use of metal detectors, no weapons signage and
situational awareness of the staff.

RISKAlerts is a publication of Risk & Security LLC.
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RISKAlert November, 2014 Updated Incident Planning for Healthcare Facilities

Incorporating Active Shooter Incident Planning into Health Care Facility Emergency Operations Plans

National preparedness efforts, including planning, are based on U.S. Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) 8: Preparedness, which was signed by the President in March 2011.  This updated  directive represents an “evolution” in understanding of national preparedness based on lessons learned from rom natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy, terrorist acts like the Boston Bombing and active shooter and other violent incidents.

Preparedness is centered in five areas: Prevention, Protection, Mitigation, Response, and Recovery. These concepts are applied to Health Care Facility (HCFs) Planning for active shooters and other violent incidents.

Emergency Operations Plans for Health Care Facilities (EOPs) should be living documents that are routinely reviewed and consider all types of hazards, including the possibility of an active shooter or terrorist incident. As law enforcement continues to draw lessons learned from actual emergencies, HCFs should incorporate those lessons learned into existing emergency plans or in newly created EOPs.

It advises a whole community approach that includes staff, patients, and visitors as well as individuals with access and functional needs. Examples of these populations include children, older adults, pregnant women, individuals with disabilities, etc.

The key concepts include not only familiar concepts like “Run-Hide-Fight” but also concepts on addressing a wider range of risks (threats), how to do drills, improvement of situational awareness activities, expanding the definitions of risks, how to do Psychological First Aid (PFA), and how to integrate these with HIPAA guidelines and Rules and the importance and role of Security in Emergency Operations Planning (EOPs).

Lesson  Learned :    Don’t Wait to Respond!

A 2005 investigation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology into the collapse of the World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, found that people close to the floors impacted waited longer to start evacuating than those on unaffected floors.   Similarly, during the Virginia Tech shooting, individuals on campus responded to the shooting with varying degrees of urgency. (ref:  Federal Building and Fire Safety Investigation of the World Trade Center Disaster: Occupant Behavior, Egress, and Emergency Communications.)

            Frequent Security Situational Awareness Training, and Active Shooter –
Disaster Drills can prevent this “frozen” phenomena and save lives in
a violent incident , a terrorist attack, or a disaster scenario.


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publications of Risk & Security LLC



Inmate Patient Takes Sheriff’s Deputy’s Gun, Shoots Deputy and Kills Himself

Prisoner Grabs Deputy’s Gun at a West Union, Iowa Hospital,  Shoots Deputy & Turns Firearm on Himself.

At Palmer Lutheran Health Center, a full service hospital in West Union, Iowa, an inmate who was brought from Fayette County Jail on Saturday morning, August 23, at 8:30 am, grabbed the County Sheriff Deputy’s gun and demanded he be released, the deputy used a non-lethal device on the inmate, who then shot the deputy at close range.  The inmate then killed himself with the handgun.

The deputy, who was wearing a bulletproof vest, was shot in the stomach, but was treated and released at the site of the incident.  The inmate, still unidentified, grabbed the gun when one of his hands was released for his medical treatment.

West Union Shooting

LESSONS  LEARNED:

1.   Forensic patients (prisoners) know it’s easier to escape
from the hospital
room, or hospital bed,  than it is to
escape from the County Jail!  Security should be
present to support law enforcement.  One deputy is
a minimum.  Deputy with security officer present is
better.

 

2.   Wearing a bulletproof vest saved the deputy’s life during the incident.  Security officers should
consider having bulletproof vests available when dealing with this type of patient.

According to research in the Journal of Injury Prevention,  “Shootings in U.S. Hospitals 2000 – 2011,
in 23% of shootings within hospital emergency departments, the weapon was a security officer’s gun taken by the perpetrator. https://www.llis.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/FA-gdkelen.pdf

IAHSS (International Association of Hospital Safety and Security),  has policy guidelines for security departments that deal with forensic (inmate) patients.  IAHSS members can access the Healthcare Security: Basic Industry Guidelines at www.iahss.org.

Security managers and hospital management need to make sure that All Hospital Staff including Clinical Staff
Are Warned to Use Extreme Caution When Working with or Near Forensic Patients!


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