From the April 2019 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine

Not only are visitors being scrutinized, vendors and contractors performing work in the facility are also subject to criminal checks and specialized training requirements. Hospitals have recently recognized contractor badges as approval for vendors to travel unstopped anywhere in the facility. A freely wandering contractor employee stole patient belongings and others pawned tools taken from the hospital’s maintenance shop. Patient medications have also been a target and hospitals are now installing locks on patient belonging closets. Facility departments are also tightening requirements. Specialized infection control awareness training is becoming a mandate for contractors prior to working in the facility.

The back door and the loading dock are common entrances where vendors and contractors enter to perform their tasks. Some facilities require workers to check in at the engineering office to pick up a generic facility badge, while others have yet to require workers to wear any identifying badge. From the Infection Preventionists’ perspective workers performing duties in the facility should understand proper routing and work area preparations to protect the surrounding patient population. Small projects that are not covered by an Infection Control Risk Assessment (ICRA) are normally performed without any specific limitations. The hospital is counting on the contracted workers to know proper work practices and to follow them no matter where in the facility they are working. Proper work practices are just as much an aspect of security, by providing a safe work environment as well as preventing dust from becoming airborne.


The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is also weighing in on security and safety issues. CMS warned one hospital that it would terminate them from the Medicare program unless they corrected safety issues that placed patients in “immediate jeopardy”. Hardly a week goes by without a story of a security incident at a hospital. One facility, in a stable area of town, mentioned that it is not uncommon to have six to seven security-involved problems per week. Hospitals are tightening access and beefing up security to keep patients, staff and visitors safe.

About the author: Thom Wellington is the CEO of, and a stockholder in Infection Control University.

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