Hospital Lockdown Procedures (including for a Code Pink)

[Melissa Knapp]

All,
We are reviewing our procedures for an attempted infant or child
abduction - Code Pink. We lockdown our entire hospital. We have over
10 interconnected buildings and we have based our plan on the
assumption that an abduction can occur anywhere in the hospital, not
just the wards that have the infant/child alarm system. We want to
know what other hospitals are doing.

1. Do you completely lockdown your entire hospital?
2. Do you have a means to do this electronically?
3. If you can lock the doors electronically, they still have to be
available for emergency egress. So, do you put people at all of your
doors during the code?
4. We are a very large hospital with over 50 entrances & exits. How
many entrances & exits do you have?
5. How do you exercise your lockdown? If it is a complete lockdown,
no one in/no one out, do you have patient & visitor complaints? How
do you deal with that aspect?

Any feedback and ideas are appreciated!

Thanks,
Melissa

[Laura Jull]

Hi Melissa,

We have one hospital facility that can be completely locked down electronically. Even when we do lockdown, each door is responded to by staff in the area. The purpose is to watch for people trying to exit the building. If someone tries to exit, the staff member is not to put themselves into harms way but to gather information. So, if it's clearly not someone abducting a child, we explain the situation and ask them to wait. If they choose not to wait, we do not bar their exit, we gather information. If it is the abductor, we gather everything we can including vehicle identification information and that is immediately relayed to law enforcement.

Our other hospital has a combination of manual and electronic lockdowns. It's a bit more difficult to manage, especially since it is the older and larger facility. We have fewer than 50 entrances and exits (I don't recall off the top of my head) but all doors are responded to by nearby staff.

We drill twice each year full scale. There is a process that we call "screening" as opposed to lockdown. I would be concerned about EMTALA violations if we completely locked down for a drill. So, we go into screening mode. We tell people who approach the doors why we are exercising (to keep their loved ones safe) and that we would appreciate their cooperation in waiting a moment while we continue our training. However, if there is medical need or the person cannot or will not wait, it's documented and we serve the individual. It's a tricky line, but people are usually pretty understanding when we explain what we are doing and why we are doing it.

Be safe; get prepared.

Laura Jull

Laura Jull, MEd, CEM, CHSP
Emergency Preparedness Coordinator
Harrison Medical Center
2520 Cherry Avenue
Bremerton, WA 98310
360-744-6426

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