Protest, Attack Prompts Hospital Lockdown

Increasingly, healthcare organizations are rethinking their security measures as they reassess the potential threats to their facilities, patients, staffs and visitors. Recent incidents involve both attacks inside hospitals and in adjacent parking structures. Now managers can add protests to the list of such issues.

In Salmon Creek, Wash., recently, Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center was put into lockdown because of a protest outside its building, according to KATU. A woman had called authorities to report that her mother, who was admitted to the hospital the day before for medical reasons, was now being held against her will, says the Clark County Sheriff's Office.

As a crowd gathered and started shouting, the hospital went into lockdown and requested the presence of additional sheriff's deputies. At one point during the protest, some people in the crowd tried to force their way inside when a person not affiliated with the demonstration walked into the hospital and deputies had to physically push people back from the entrance. In another try for the door, the sheriff's office said a man "tried again to force the doors open and assault a deputy."

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