HOSPITAL INTRUDERS RAISING SECURITY CONCERNS IN INDIANA

May 1, 2005 12:00 PM

HEALTHCARE

Cases of unauthorized people trying to gain access to restricted areas of hospitals in Indiana and across the country continue to puzzle federal authorities and security officials.

Recently, an Indianapolis hospital reported suspicious people trying to enter its emergency department. On the same day, two professionally dressed people carrying clipboards walked into the outpatient campus of Porter hospital in Valparaiso, Ind., saying they wanted to tour the facility. The two left when challenged.

Earlier, during a two-week period starting Feb. 26, people claiming to be inspectors from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations tried to enter hospitals in Boston, Los Angeles and Detroit, The Associated Press reports. The cases appeared not to be related.

A day after the Indianapolis incident, a former safety officer at St. Vincent Hospital and Health Services in Indianapolis, Thomas Huser, sent an e-mail to health care security officials across the state saying men had tried to gain access to the emergency departments at three separate hospitals, which were not named, The Times of Northwest Indiana reports.

Huser's e-mail also said information found in a car at one of the hospitals indicated one of the men was on the FBI Terror Watch List. He said he received the information from another hospital.

Mark Forstneger, spokesman for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, said the intruders masquerading as inspectors more likely were looking for drugs or privileged information about patients than pursuing any plot against national security.

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