If you have a loved one living in a nursing home the assumption is they are in safe hands. However, recently shootings occurring in North Carolina in the US and British Columbia in Canada have brought about a question of safety in nursing homes.
In Carthage, North Carolina, gunman Robert Kenneth Stewart, 45, shot and killed seven patients and a nurse while wounding three at Pinelake Health and Rehab Center before police gunned him down. Meanwhile, across the continent in Gibsons, British Columbia, a 40-year old woman, Linda Lorraine Howe while being evicted from the Good Samaritan Canada Christenson Village, took her frustrations out and shot and wounded three.
Currently most of the standards and regulations for nursing home safety concern illness and disease. The US Department of Labor Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) has an extensive section regarding health safety standards for nursing home facilities. However, the issue of security in nursing homes is not widely addressed. It is generally left up to the facility to provide security for the building.
Some like security professional, Patrick Fiel Sr., who talked to the News Observer suggested the use of guarded gates to enter the nursing homes. With a guarded gate, people would be required to show their identification in order to get in. Others may feel as if the nursing home shooting is more of an isolated incident and gating a community makes it feel less like a home.
What are your thoughts, email us at g.perna@execdigital.com and send them along.
In Carthage, North Carolina, gunman Robert Kenneth Stewart, 45, shot and killed seven patients and a nurse while wounding three at Pinelake Health and Rehab Center before police gunned him down. Meanwhile, across the continent in Gibsons, British Columbia, a 40-year old woman, Linda Lorraine Howe while being evicted from the Good Samaritan Canada Christenson Village, took her frustrations out and shot and wounded three.
Currently most of the standards and regulations for nursing home safety concern illness and disease. The US Department of Labor Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) has an extensive section regarding health safety standards for nursing home facilities. However, the issue of security in nursing homes is not widely addressed. It is generally left up to the facility to provide security for the building.
Some like security professional, Patrick Fiel Sr., who talked to the News Observer suggested the use of guarded gates to enter the nursing homes. With a guarded gate, people would be required to show their identification in order to get in. Others may feel as if the nursing home shooting is more of an isolated incident and gating a community makes it feel less like a home.
What are your thoughts, email us at g.perna@execdigital.com and send them along.
