Here’s to You Mr. Robinson
Alan Robinson, director of protection and security services for Morristown, N.J.-based Atlantic Health beat out some stiff competition to capture the first annual Campus Safety Director of the Year/Healthcare award. Discover what made him a winner.
Since then, however, Robinson and his officers have raised the bar even higher. For example, Atlantic Health’s security department has retained the services of a K-9 unit that does random inspections of the loading dock and vehicles. “We recognize that terrorists spend a lot of time at your hospital on the outside,” says the director. “They want to see what type of security there is and how easy it is for them to be identified.”
Customized Annual Training Keeps Officers Up to Date
In addition to being prepared to prevent or respond to another possible terrorist attack, Atlantic Health officers must deal with more common threats, such as infant abduction. As a result, all Atlantic Health security officers are certified by the International Association of Healthcare Safety & Security (IAHSS). Additionally, they are required to participate in Atlantic Health’s customized annual training program, which focuses on infant/child security and workplace violence, in addition to issues specifically related to terrorism.
Officers as well as other staff are also trained in the handling of psychiatric patients. “We basically manage that response team and stage them in an area if a show of force is really all that’s needed for the person to calm down and resign themselves to whatever treatment their doctor recommends,” says Robinson. “If they are dangerous or have weapons, we are trained to safely disarm them.
“One of the things we do is spend a lot of time teaching security people they cannot take these situations personally,” the director adds. “Psych patients and also brain trauma patients will engage you and get physical because they have a mental defect.”
Robinson also stresses the importance of working with the staff responsible for psychiatric patient care because, unlike security personnel, they know the individuals involved and understand the types of behaviors.
Nonsecurity Staff Stretch Resources, Improve Coverage
In addition to educating security officers, Robinson recently began providing security awareness training to the organization’s nonsecurity personnel. “We basically targeted groups of employees, for example secretaries whose desks are located near elevators or entrances/exits,” he says. “It teaches them what types of suspicious behaviors to look for and report to us. Atlantic Health has about 8,500 employees, so by using those thousands of pairs of eyes and ears, we have actually grown our security staff.”
This approach also came in handy when the organization’s physical plant expanded by 1.2 million square feet in 2006. Because no additional security officers were hired, the newly trained non-security personnel helped fill the coverage gap.
In March 2006, Robinson also coordinated a disaster preparedness and response conference with Israeli faculty, physicians and disaster preparedness experts. This training was conducted so that Atlantic Health physicians and first responders could better manage pediatric disaster/mass casualty events.
All of this nonsecurity staff training has tied in quite nicely with the security department’s adoption of the community policing approach. Now, security officers have greater interaction with staff and visitors. “By being more approachable to the public and other employees, we get much more cooperation,” says Robinson. “We can’t do our job unless people tell us what’s going on.”
Morale Remains High While Turnover Is Minimized
Despite the change in focus and additional responsibilities that have been put on Atlantic Health’s security officers, a recent employee satisfaction/engagement survey conducted by the organization indicates officer morale is extremely high. That may explain why turnover is so low at Atlantic Health.
“Our biggest problem was a lack of turnover in supervisory positions,” says Robinson. “We were losing very qualified and highly trained officers because there was no upward mobility. We get a sergeant or lieutenant, and he or she is here for years.”
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About the Author
Robin Hattersley, Editor-in-Chief
Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.
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