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Healthcare organizations are commonly the target of unexpected physical and cyberattacks, leading many systems working hard to strengthen their security and workplace environments. According to a 2024 eClinicalMedicine journal , many healthcare organizations and clinicians have observed increasing rates of violence over recent years with a concomitant rise in negative impacts on healthcare workers. On the cyber-attack side, the American Health Association determined that healthcare organizations are vulnerable to cyberattacks because they possess so much information like Social Security numbers and intellectual property related to medical research. These incidents are leading many healthcare security groups scrambling to provide the best technology, cyber security protections and on call assistance. In conversation with Lauris Freidenfelds, Vice President of Security Risk Consulting, Telgian Engineering & Consulting, he addresses the increases in cyber and physical attacks in the healthcare space from his 30-year healthcare security career.
Read his perspective below to explore how health systems can promote safer work environments and cohesive cyber and physical security integrations.
Nursing in Safety: Enhancing Protection in Healthcare Settings
There are a lot of underreported incidents of violence or microaggressions towards nurses, that can really add up and lead to these unwanted experiences. From my career as a healthcare security officer, we really tried to encourage nurses to report these incidents, as it optimizes their safety and reduces stigmas that they are ‘expected to work in these conditions.’ Unfortunately for nurses that may have more tenure they will unfortunately have more experience with these incidents, as the culture has shifted dramatically over the last few years. During the pandemic, reported incidents from the American Hospital Association discovered that 44% of nurses experienced physical violence and 68% experienced verbal abuse. Within my work in security consulting, it continues to be my priority to offer security solutions to these challenges, and thankfully, the expectation that this should not be acceptable is becoming more acknowledged and understood as these statistics made waves.
The reality is that workplace violence negatively impacts employee productivity and patient satisfaction significantly, as research by the American Hospital Association discovered. One of my responsibilities as a healthcare security officer was to respond to emergency alerts from healthcare workers’ Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS). The RTLS is a wireless duress button that nurses can carry on their ID badge to serve as a discreet and flexible option for signaling for help. Of course, the button doesn’t include the option to communicate verbally, but it can pinpoint the exact location of the duress signal which is integral to alerting security teams for help.
Digital Defenses: Strengthening Cybersecurity to Protect Healthcare from Threats
Cyber security and physical security sectors don’t overlap because they often report into different people, which can make coordinating together challenging. In my case, I work with cyber security CSOs and one of the things that we discovered is that many attacks are a result of human frailties or actions. For instance, leaving a computer on that is open to all medical records is an obvious oversight that can lead to these cyber-attacks, which makes it even more discouraging when existing sophisticated technologies penetrate the system. The Financial Times recognized the increased cyberattacks on health systems by addressing the US Department of Health and Human Services’ minimum standards for hospital cyber security — with bigger fines for non-compliance — and government funding to help the sector improve security.
In addition to better funding for cyber security, I believe it would make more sense if physical and cyber security teams worked cohesively instead of separately as they often do. Physical security and cyber security need to become more integrated, as their work overlaps. For instance, a security director will want to know the risks that impact a building and with AI, they can detect the probabilities that an individual may be carrying a weapon. Advanced technology can present analytics, such as informing security officers that ‘there is a 67% chance that this person may be carrying a weapon.’ This is integral to informing safety and seeking these integrations that we are anticipating.
Unified Response: Leveraging Incident Command for Healthcare Security
Emergency management incident command is the methodology for establishing a way for all entities or law enforcement respondents to work and communicate in collaboration. The Democratic and Republic National Conventions that took place recently are great examples where this emergency management occurs. The general goal of incident command teams is to ensure that every event runs smoothly and without incidents. For instance, when I worked in emergency management, we had to deal closely with the Ebola virus. We brought together an incident command team to facilitate and monitor the best steps for progressing with patients infected with Ebola.
This strategy of working quickly and cautiously can help navigate the most serious and crucial events in healthcare security. In healthcare facilities, the tensions run high which leads more patients acting out or increasing these violent situations. However, the evolution of security has changed a lot, and with these integrated cyber and physical security systems, we’re likely moving in a more direction where healthcare workers are more protected than they ever were before. As reported by a Patient Safety Network study, their findings recommend that fostering a culture of psychological safety will harbor the best results for a healthier work environment. By channeling this environment, healthcare staff members will feel more confident to express their concerns and report safety events.
Interested in more content like this? Read our recent articles, Rising Demand for Behavioral Health Services: Impacts on Facility Expansion Nationwide or Top Strategies for Effective Medical Office Asset Management . You can view all this content and more when you click here to sign up for our Medical newsletter!