Restoring Security Confidence

Sep 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Randy Southerland

When Rick Peat took over security operation at Memorial Health System in Colorado Springs, Colo., he faced a real but unseen problem. Nobody at the hospital thought very much of the security officers. In fact, the officers didn't think much of themselves.

“Security officers walked around with their heads down, and nobody even recognized that they were here,” Peat says. “I would say my biggest accomplishment is that I now have a staff that feels that they are part of the hospital.”

When he arrived after a 10-year stint at a private security agency, Peat recognized that the facility had good people in place, but they suffered from poor public relations. They didn't know how to “sell themselves” as vital contributing members of the hospital community. The first thing he did was to go about changing that perception.

“One of the big things I have done here at Memorial is to really meet with directors and managers and let them know what security does,” Peat says. “A lot of them can't believe what we go through on a day-to-day basis.”

Communication was just part of Peat's security strategy. He also worked with a fact-finding committee that eventually recommended that the security force be upgraded from a mostly contract service to an employed force supplemented by outside security services. Peat increased both standards and pay, and in the process, has been able to attract an exceptional quality of officer. The last time a position was opened to candidates, nearly 300 applications were submitted.

As the director of security operations, Peat oversees not only the security department, but also the hospital's telephone operators, dispatchers and contracted valet operation. The emergency management coordinator and the safety manager both report to Peat, whose wide-ranging job also currently provides oversight to maintenance and environmental services

Providing security in a healthcare environment offers its own special challenges. As a city-owned facility, Memorial Hospital System provides critical care to a wide segment of the general public — from the wealthy to the unemployed and homeless. “We have the busiest emergency room in Colorado,” Peat says. “The [ER] was set up originally to handle maybe a third of what we handle in a year,”

Although protecting a hospital, Peat and his security officers face many of the same challenges as a big city police department. They have dealt with crimes ranging from drug use to assault to murder.

“We end up probably with 30 people a day that come in intoxicated or on drugs, and we have two officers who remain in the emergency department at all times to keep an eye on them,” he says. “Anything I have done in law enforcement, we have done here at the hospital.”

As part of the plan to create a security force that is woven into the fabric of the institution, Peat uses only permanent security officers to handle inside operations. Contract officers from Securitas Security Services USA patrol the garage and the hospital's 18 off-site locations.

As a growing institution, Memorial is in the process of building a new facility set to open in early 2007 — Memorial Hospital North. This new hospital is being designed with security in mind, including running fiber optics and incorporating CCTV and access control into the construction of the building.

Technology plays an important role in protecting the hospital's patients, staff and physicians. Peat has supervised the installation of more than 200 cameras covering doors, parking lots and other areas that are monitored by a central station. The facility uses badge access to protected areas such as the maternal care units. In addition to cameras covering the garage, the area is equipped with panic boxes. “They push a button and the camera automatically focuses on it, and dispatch can talk to them,” Peat explains.

With every strata of society represented at Memorial, the ability to communicate and a clear understanding of how to handle a volatile situation are important skills for every security officer.

“When people are reacting, you need to listen to them and find out what is the real issue and not take it personally,” Peat says of his training philosophy. “Then when you find out what the issue is, you can determine what we need to do to help. I tell my people that their biggest primary job is customer service.”

Peat grew up on the beaches of Southern California living a lifestyle typical of a “surfer dude.” It all came to an end when he received a draft notice and faced the prospect of military service. He entered the military and found himself assigned to a police unit. He found he liked the job so much that he made it his 24-year career.

“When I got out of the military, I was trying to join the Police Department, but I had to wait about six months before the next academy started,” he recalls. “A buddy of mine, who used to be one of my dispatchers at the MP station, said this contract security company is really hurting for people.”

Peat decided it might be a good idea to spend the next few months working for the company until he could find a police department assignment. That short time turned into 10 years of service. Joining a police force would have meant working his way up through the ranks again. That's when he came upon the opening for a security director at Memorial.

It represented the kind of challenge he was looking for and an opportunity to rebuild an agency that had lost its way and the respect of its own organization. Today, security is a vital and growing part of Memorial Health System.

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