Guidelines Target Active Shooters in Healthcare

The International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety has released the revised Healthcare Security Industry Guideline 08.09: Active Shooter/Hostile Event Response (ASHER) Plan to assist healthcare organizations to bolster healthcare security preparedness and response, The guideline provides a framework for the plan to include preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery from an active shooter or hostile event. 

Healthcare organizations are continuously looking for ways to improve security and patient care while being confronted with more disruptive and volatile events than ever before.  The changing societal climate has placed even greater emphasis on healthcare worker preparedness, training, and tools to best manage and combat the possibility of an active shooter or hostile event. 

Healthcare facilities continue to experience these tragedies that impact not only the victims of the violence but also healthcare employees with psychological injuries resulting in stress, fear, job satisfaction and high turnover rates. Healthcare administrators continue to look for reliable ways to prepare and mitigate risks in these situations. 

With the implementation of the revised ASHER plan, the managers can better prepare, train and mitigate risks. Additional benefits of the guidelines include enhanced collaboration with first responders and the community.