Hospital Has Plan for Bomb Threat

Hospital Has Plan for Bomb Threat

features

The phone rings and a hospital employee answers in the normal, courteous manner. The caller slowly and specifically states, “There’s a bomb in your hospital!” and hangs up. Now, what should the hospital do?

This situation is one that seems to be on the increase across the country. It is a situation that many hospitals, schools and other institutions have addressed to one degree or another in a wide variety of methods. Some gamble that it is a hoax, while others evacuate the building.

Based on all of the available information that we were able to obtain from films, books and the expertise of the local bomb experts, we decided that no call to our hospital should be treated as a hoax. Each should be thoroughly checked out and investigated. We do recognize the fact thatmost bomb threats are just that, but how do you know if your next call is not the norm?

The call could be made by a former employee, a former patient or a patient’s family. It could be a current employee or patient or even the child down the street who wants to see some excitement. All of this, coupled with a Centrex phone system that allows direct dial to almost all in-house phones—which makes a central taping unit a near impossibility—requires a systematic organized plan that must be put into motion immediately upon receipt of a bomb threat call.

Fire department approval

Following the first bomb threat I experienced as the administrative person in charge of safety, our institution chose to implement the plan described here.

To ensure that our pre-incident plan is proper and that we are in agreement with the fire and police departments, we have our plan signed by the chiefs of both departments and the director of security of our hospital.

It is our hope that our plan will be used in very few cases and that the evacuation of our facility will never be required. But just in case, when it’s our move, we know where we are going. Do you?

Upon receipt of notification of a bomb threat, the St. Elizabeth Medical Center’s security department shall immediately assume all responsibility and authority for proper implementation of the bomb threat procedure. When police department personnel arrive, they shall immediately assume all responsibility and authority. Police officers will be responsible for giving the “all clear” and the termination of the bomb threat incident. If and when a bomb is detonated, the fire department immediately assumes all responsibility and authority.

Upon notification of a bomb threat, one security officer will go directly to the person who received the threat. He will interview the person and complete the bomb threat form. After returning the completed form to the security office, he will assist with the search.

The bomb threat telephone report form has space for writing the exact words of the caller, as well as the time of the call and the phone operator’s name. The form reminds a phone operator to ask the caller the following questions:

Where is the bomb? Exactly? When is it going to explode? What does it look like? What will make it explode? How do you deactivate it? Why was it put there?

At the bottom of the form, there is space to note whether the caller’s voice seems to be young, middle-aged, male or female. The person receiving the call is also asked to describe the tone of voice, accent or impediment, and background noise. If the voice was familiar, the call receiver is asked to write the name of the person it sounded like. At the end of the form is space for remarks.

Persons to be notified

The security officer will notify the PBX operator to phone the following:

• Local police and fire departments,
• Administrator,
• Administrative person on call,
• Director of maintenance,
• Other administrative personnel by direction of the administrator or administrative person on call, as deemed necessary, and
• Non-nursing departments that are operational at the time of the bomb threat.

Security will notify:

• Nursing supervisor on duty (who will notify all nursing units),
• Director of security and
• Safety director.

This information is not announced over the public address system nor given to any unauthorized person.

Control of search

The security office will be the center for information and operation. Administrative personnel will respond to this department to receive reports and to communicate with local police and fire department personnel who will also be in this center.

What Should and Shouldn’t Be Done Actions to Be Taken

1. Treat all bomb threats seriously. Never consider a bomb threat a prank.
2. During the search, look for strange or out-of-place objects. A person familiar with the area will be helpful in identifying out-of-place objects.
3. Search critical areas and obscure places such as desk drawers, boxes, closets, cabinets, lockers, etc. (if caller identified bomb location).
4. Be thorough and patient. You will not be able to search everything but be thorough enough to be reasonably certain that the area is safe.
5. If a bomb is located, do not touch or attempt to move it. Immediately call the security office.
6. Evacuate an area only when necessary and on orders from administration or police department personnel.

Actions to Be Avoided

1. Do not cause undue alarm by broadcasting that a bomb threat has been received or that a bomb is present. This announcement will cause panic. If an area must be cleared, conduct a fire drill.
2. It is important to remember when dealing with a homemade bomb or sabotage threat, you should be careful in your actions. A bomb is often designed to detonate when a person does something a bomber knows he will do.
3. Do not handle any suspect item unless absolutely necessary. Some items are sensitive to the slightest movement.
4. Avoid any publicity concerning the bomb threat or a bomb, if discovered. Any publicity should be made from community relations section or the nursing supervisor. Our specific procedure in dealing with a bomb threat should not be disclosed to the news media.
5. The use of walkie-talkies is allowed unless an unknown device is found, then use telephones.

A security officer will meet police officers and fire fighters who respond to the hospital’s call and advise them of the details of the bomb threat message and the hospital’s response.

Designated employees will immediately make a methodical search of their assigned areas and report to security when their areas have been searched.

In the event that a suspect bomb is found, the police officer in charge will notify the local bomb squad for the purpose of deactivation and removal. Any qualified individual may remove suspected bomb to a safe area with approval of the police officer in charge.

After all areas have been searched and cleared, the police officer in charge will authorize the “all clear.”

Bomb search guidelines

Should the caller state a specific area, then all efforts should initially be in the stated area, and then spread out from its center under the direction of the officer in charge.

After a bomb threat has been received and the police and fire departments and appropriate administrative personnel have been notifed to respond to the hospital, the following search procedures foT a bomb in an unknown location should be initiated by the security department:

1. The areas to be searched have been identified with numerical classifications placed in priority order. A card system and maps have been developed for each area. Security will distribute these cards to the responding administrative persons for search purposes.
2. All non-nursing departments operational at the time the threat is received will be notified by PBX. These departments will perform their own search of their department with special attention paid to:
3. Areas of public access within their department and
4. Rest of their department.
5. All nursing units will be notified by the nursing supervisors and will perform their own searches of their units with special attention to:
6. Adjacent waiting areas,
7. Washrooms,
8. Report and conference rooms,
9. Utility rooms,
10. Adjacent housekeeping and storage areas,
11. Nurses stations and adjoining rooms, and
12. Patient rooms, including bathrooms, lockers, counters and floor space.
13. The security officer of administrative person responsible for a given area should check with the person in charge for that department or unit to assure that a thorough search has been completed. When the area assigned has been searched, the responsible party will report to the security officer with his or her findings, returning the completed search card and picking up another if the entire search is not complete. The security office will keep a record of card assignments.
14. One administrative person will remain in the security department to receive information and to make or assist in decisions required by the existing situation.

Specific search areas

Area I—Perimeter search: The police and fire departments should be assigned to the perimeter search. If these agencies are unavailable, this search should be conducted by the security officer assigned to round duty or the first available administrative person who responds to the facility. The perimeter search includes the following:

Sprinkler control valves, garbage cans, flagpost base, fire hydrants and their shutoffs (usually located in front of the hydrant), sewers and manhole covers, oxygen tank, gas tanks, oil tanks, daily dock area, warehouse dock area, patio and main water control pit.

Area II—Diagnostic core (first floor): The first administrative person who responds to the unit and is available after the perimeter search is under way or completed should be assigned this card and search the following areas:

Gift shop, main lobby, admitting, business offices, Xerox room, doctors’ lounge, medical records, doctors’ entrance, library, elevator lobbies, stairway 5, chapel, physical therapy, respiratory therapy, EKG, EEG, speech and audiology, social service, security, grieving room, safety director’s office, emergency room lobby, emergency room, stairway 3, employee entrance, sterile elevator, radiology, stairway 4 and laboratory.

Area III—Diagnostic core (ground floor): The next available administrative person who responds to the unit should be given the Area III card and search the following areas:

Personnel, stairway 5, elevator lobbies, restrooms, pharmacy, vending area, cafeteria, private dining rooms, kitchen, morgue, traction room, locker rooms, volunteer store room, SPD, daily dock, stairway 3, maintenance, volunteer flower room, trash dock, boiler room, generator room, warehouse, grounds building and laundry.

Area IV—Diagnostic core (second floor): The next available administrative person who responds to the unit should be given Area IV card and search the following areas:

Second floor lobby, administrative office area, stairways 1 and 2, elevator lobbies, stairway 5, family waiting area, chapel balcony, I.V. therapy, PBX, ICU, stairway 4, operating room area, stairway 3, unassigned areas and the mailroom.

Area V—A wing (all floors): The nursing supervisor should be assigned Area V card and she or her designate should search the following areas:

SPD rooms, stairway at the end of the A-wing basement hallway, all rooms and areas and stairs of nursing units 1A and 2A, conference rooms A through D, treatment room, storage room, locker rooms, and infection control office, lounge and dietary office.

Area VI—B wing (all floors): The nursing supervisor should be assigned Area VI card and she or her designate should search the following areas:

Housekeeping, SPD rooms, stairway at the end of the B wing, basement hallway, all rooms and areas and stairs of nursing units IB and 2B.

Area VII—Maintenance areas: The representative from the maintenance department should be assigned the Area VII card and search the maintenance areas:

All elevator shafts, electrical, mechanical, equipment rooms, penthouses and roofs including the laundry roof.

The greatest probability for a bomb placement would be on counters or the floor space next to counters or chairs. If the location of the bomb is identified, an intensive search of that area would be the responsibility of the security department with the assistance of department personnel who are involved and present at the time of the bomb threat. In this situation, a search of all other areas will be simultaneously conducted.