Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Strengthening Healthcare Security Through Training, Technology and Empathy

Transcript

Strengthening Healthcare Security Through Training, Technology and Empathy · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  - There's a small circle of people who truly
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  - understand what it takes to lead a health
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  - system right now. The decisions are enormous.
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  - The variables are constantly shifting, and the stakes
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  - of getting a call wrong don't stay contained.
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  - That's not a complaint. It's a structural reality.
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  - And it's why the most effective c suite
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  - leaders are deliberate about where they go to
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  - pressure test their thinking.
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  - Becker's fourteenth annual CEO and CFO roundtable
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  - brings together more than 1,500
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  - executive level attendees
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  - and nearly 400 speakers for four days built
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  - around growth, financial sustainability,
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  - workforce strategy, and the leadership questions that don't
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  - have easy answers.
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  - Join us November second through the fifth in
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  - Chicago.
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  - For the agenda and event details,
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  - visit beckershospitalreview.com
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  - and click on the events tab in the
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  - upper right.
• 0:50
  - Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm Chris
• 0:52
  - Sosa, your host, and I'm thrilled to be
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  - joined today by Chris Carr. He's director one
• 0:56
  - of security services for Texas Children's. Chris, thank
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  - you for joining us today.
• 1:01
  - Afternoon. Thanks for having me, Chris. Appreciate it.
• 1:03
  - Wonderful, Chris. So before we get into the
• 1:06
  - bulk of the conversation,
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  - could you just please introduce yourself in a
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  - little bit more detail and tell us a
• 1:10
  - bit about your background?
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  - Okay. As I said, you know, you or
• 1:15
  - you said rather, you know, Chris
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  - Carr, director one here at the Med Center
• 1:20
  - for Texas Children's.
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  - It being such a a large organization,
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  - I have a counterpart who oversees everything outside
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  - the Med Center. I focus primarily
• 1:30
  - on everything for the Med Center, but we
• 1:32
  - complement each other and we overlap and we
• 1:35
  - help each other out to ensure continuity,
• 1:39
  - and everything
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  - like that.
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  - My background,
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  - I'm originally from Massachusetts.
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  - I came
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  - to Texas Children's
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  - back in 2013.
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  - Originally,
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  - I was hired on to liaison
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  - between,
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  - the law enforcement component that was here
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  - and the security,
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  - component because I have kinda what's called a
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  - multidiscipline
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  - background.
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  - I was an officer in a commonwealth for
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  - a number of years.
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  - I've done corporate security,
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  - private
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  - details,
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  - fancy protection details.
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  - I've done
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  - security programs on three different continents over the
• 2:23
  - years.
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  - I come from a pretty rigid
• 2:27
  - marine corps background. My dad was in the
• 2:29
  - corps for a number of years.
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  - So it's always been law enforcement, security.
• 2:35
  - Texas Children's,
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  - has been kind of a highlight in that.
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  - It it quickly became that because it it's
• 2:41
  - such a unique,
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  - ever changing, ever evolving
• 2:45
  - kinda department and job role that it's it's
• 2:49
  - not what it was. And as we'll get
• 2:51
  - into, I'm sure, how how it's changed and
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  - transformed over the years.
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  - We'll definitely get into all of that, Chris.
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  - But as far as your background is concerned,
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  - clearly, you've been everywhere you mentioned around the
• 3:01
  - world and now and before you were in
• 3:03
  - your current role, you were liaison.
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  - How were you drawn into health care security
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  - in particular?
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  - It was,
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  - back in
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  - around 2009.
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  - Like I said, I was I was an
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  - officer in the Commonwealth,
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  - and,
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  - I had a a daughter who was gonna
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  - be starting college
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  - and basically needed another job
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  - to help with those college expenses.
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  - And I had transitioned out of corporate security,
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  - into health care security because there was an
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  - officer that I had worked with,
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  - on another PD
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  - who was,
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  - actually out of Connecticut Children's at the time
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  - and,
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  - got got into that, got to know him.
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  - When something opened up here,
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  - I kinda
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  - got a phone call. Was like, hey. Have
• 3:50
  - you ever thought of making a transition?
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  - So I I basically put my papers in
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  - and packed up the family and off we
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  - went to Houston.
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  - Well, it seems like the move has been
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  - paying off so far.
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  - Absolutely.
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  - Yes. Wonderful to hear.
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  - So, Chris, as you mentioned,
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  - the health care security landscape is
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  - constantly changing.
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  - No doubt you're aware that so many
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  - hospitals and health systems are putting a greater
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  - focus on it.
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  - So where I wanna start with that today
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  - is simply this. How has the discussion around
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  - health system security changed in the last few
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  - years, and what has driven the changes that
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  - Texas Children's in particular has made lately?
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  - Well, I think
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  - the big thing when you're considering how
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  - health care security has changed is it it's
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  - moved beyond,
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  - you know, the traditional,
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  - oh, access control, asset protection.
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  - You're just gonna respond to calls for service
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  - or an incident.
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  - Now
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  - regardless of your organization, you face more complex
• 4:55
  - risks.
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  - Everything
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  - you know, workplace violence is a big one.
• 5:00
  - Behavioral health
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  - is
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  - basically in in crisis at this point because
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  - there was no resources. There was not you
• 5:07
  - didn't even really hear of it,
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  - prior to
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  - maybe 2010,
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  - 2011,
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  - and now it's kind of its own
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  - entity. We we've seen it grow exponentially over
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  - the years,
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  - just a number of kiddos that need our
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  - services and we help.
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  - Another big thing we've had to kinda shift
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  - in a big with, staff threats,
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  - cyber related.
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  - The organization, we partner with IES from time
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  - to time. Anything cyber is is had a
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  - big change, and that'll cause disruptions into it.
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  - And then just the separate safety expectations have
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  - increased, not only from patients,
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  - you know, caregivers and their families. The staff
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  - now
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  - demands a certain level
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  - of, you know, security adapting and changing to
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  - to fit their needs.
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  - And we had just recently started,
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  - kind of a sub department with that of,
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  - employee protection where we,
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  - you know, we have an in house investigator.
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  - And if we think there's domestic reasons or
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  - some other things where an employee,
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  - kinda needs our help, we can do everything
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  - from,
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  - you know, changing a parking assignment to giving
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  - them an escort to the garage.
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  - It's kinda taken on its own
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  - little, existence. So
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  - that's primarily been the change.
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  - Our response, there's probably no
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  - event or thing that happened here
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  - that traditionally will force change. One of the
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  - the things I really respect about Texas Children's
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  - is the way,
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  - you know, they adapt and pivot before those
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  - were buzzwords.
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  - And
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  - here, I'm very proud of the fact in
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  - time I've been here, even when I got
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  - here, they had a robust workplace violence program.
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  - You know, they were ahead of the curve.
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  - They were ahead of state and federal, you
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  - know, regulations as it applies to that.
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  - And we've always adopted a a proactive
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  - kind of prevention
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  - focused,
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  - approach.
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  - You know, our efforts included expanding the workplace
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  - violence program.
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  - A big push we've done probably in the
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  - last five years
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  - has been enhancing officer training,
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  - through various technologies,
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  - programs,
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  - and just getting that de escalation.
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  - You know, back in my day, they you
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  - know, the the verbal de escalation,
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  - was something only that maybe, you know, law
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  - enforcement
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  - put a significant amount of time and money
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  - into.
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  - Here at Texas Children's, it's been doing that
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  - for years,
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  - and we just recently had a big commitment
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  - by the leadership of the organization,
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  - where we picked up, it's a training pod,
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  - where not only security officers can can go
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  - into it, some of the support staff.
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  - Eventually, we wanna get, you know, social work,
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  - family advocacy,
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  - nurses.
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  - We've partnered,
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  - with a company where,
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  - it's a tablet and it's based, it's a
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  - thing called MetaCoach.
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  - And you basically through AI,
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  - it plays like a little movie
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  - that you go back and forth with the
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  - participants in it. And depending on what you
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  - said,
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  - the AI changes how that movie plays out,
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  - and then it, more importantly,
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  - gives the person doing it
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  - some real time feedback so they know what
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  - to focus
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  - on, for the next time. So
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  - that just helps us strengthen
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  - our partnerships with the clinical and the other
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  - operational teams.
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  - Yeah. Those AI tools are becoming
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  - massively sophisticated. No doubt. I've read about, pharmaceutical
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  - teams and
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  - how they're able to train, some of their
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  - newer associates in that way as well. So
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  - it's glad I'm glad to hear that if
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  - that's translating to
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  - security personnel as well. Chris, you've covered a
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  - ton of ground there,
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  - certainly. And I'm glad to hear that there's
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  - no catalyst event at Texas Children's that led
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  - to a lot of the changes that you
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  - guys are making. And, obviously, here's hoping that
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  - never happens.
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  - But when you back up a little bit
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  - and you're looking at maybe other systems,
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  - if they come to you and say, Chris,
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  - you know, we're we're trying to get this
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  - started, you know, because we know Texas Children's
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  - is ahead of the curve as you said.
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  - What would you say are some of the
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  - building blocks of health system security in that
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  - way?
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  - That would be and and we do get
• 9:27
  - that from time to time.
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  - Another nice thing that I do like about
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  - this organization is they
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  - encourage the leadership
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  - to become, you know,
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  - join organizations,
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  - do the groups. There's a big one, you
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  - know, IHS,
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  - International Association Hospital Safety and Security.
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  - And it it developed these relationships and these
• 9:48
  - partnerships with folks, and they do. And they
• 9:50
  - call us, and just to your point, Chris,
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  - they're we're kind of an industry leader
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  - and through a lot of our initiatives and
• 9:57
  - just how we've positioned ourselves over the years.
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  - So I usually when I I meet with
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  - folks and peers and colleagues, it's
• 10:04
  - the building blocks are really kinda you know,
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  - you've gotta invest in the people because that's
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  - your that's your foundation. You've got it. All
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  - the technology in the world, all the fancy
• 10:15
  - VR, this, that, it's not gonna help you
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  - if you don't have,
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  - people that can,
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  - easily
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  - have empathy and sympathy,
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  - for anybody and everybody they're dealing with.
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  - That's gonna really help you
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  - build, which is the next kind of part
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  - the partnerships.
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  - Because if you have the the best trained
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  - folks that are
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  - really
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  - invested
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  - in the culture and the goals,
• 10:48
  - you're gonna then build those collaborations with nursing,
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  - the behavioral health units like we've done,
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  - social work.
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  - And then you've gotta bridge kind of those
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  - people orientated groups with the,
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  - sometimes folks, you know, risk in the lawyers.
• 11:06
  - We've got it because they've got a incredibly
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  - valuable part in it. We've gotta, you know,
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  - loop them in, and it just, of course,
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  - that transitions and helps us with leadership.
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  - Technology
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  - does play a part in it, so that's
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  - always something they're they're gonna have to consider
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  - that building block.
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  - And then even something I've recently,
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  - maybe the last, again, five, six years,
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  - it's
• 11:28
  - it's one thing to say, hey. Geez. You
• 11:31
  - know, based on my knowledge and experience, you
• 11:33
  - know, x y z.
• 11:35
  - Now with some of the stuff, you can
• 11:36
  - get all the data and the analytics, which
• 11:40
  - helps you
• 11:42
  - take all your incident trends
• 11:44
  - and your metrics, and that helps you,
• 11:47
  - you know, kinda quantify,
• 11:50
  - you know, budgetary resources.
• 11:53
  - Personnel, where are you gonna put them? How's
• 11:54
  - that gonna help?
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  - And
• 11:57
  - through that data and analytics, that helps you
• 12:01
  - basically just keep your policies and your processes,
• 12:06
  - kinda up to date, you know, within compliance.
• 12:11
  - And, again, just lining up with emergency preparedness
• 12:14
  - and any kind of response plans you have.
• 12:17
  - So those are tip those are typically the
• 12:20
  - big things. If you can kinda focus on
• 12:22
  - those,
• 12:23
  - you can pretty much step up any program
• 12:26
  - or enhance any program,
• 12:28
  - again, depending on size and scope.
• 12:32
  - Chris, you mentioned some of the
• 12:36
  - more unusual
• 12:37
  - aspects of
• 12:39
  - dealing with security at children's hospitals in particular.
• 12:42
  - If you wouldn't mind expanding on those. Are
• 12:45
  - there any that you see as being a
• 12:47
  - greater focus at children's hospitals than say adult
• 12:50
  - hospitals?
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  - Well, with an adult hospital,
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  - you're traditionally only dealing with that adult patient.
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  - Okay? It here,
• 13:01
  - the stress of a child and anybody who's
• 13:03
  - had a sick kid
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  - or and then now multiply that because the
• 13:07
  - kid's in the hospital.
• 13:08
  - You know, we're trying to balance
• 13:11
  - needs of the patient,
• 13:13
  - their whoever the caregiver may be.
• 13:16
  - It might not be that traditional family unit.
• 13:20
  - It could take on a lot of different
• 13:21
  - things,
• 13:22
  - and we wanna be supportive of those. We
• 13:25
  - wanna take in,
• 13:27
  - any kind of cultural differences. How do we
• 13:29
  - support? How do we help? We've got a
• 13:32
  - great international affairs division here
• 13:35
  - that helps us out with folks that come
• 13:37
  - in from outside the country.
• 13:39
  - Again,
• 13:40
  - just so we understand,
• 13:44
  - the culture
• 13:45
  - of whoever we're dealing with
• 13:47
  - and to try to relieve
• 13:50
  - some of that angst or anything that could
• 13:53
  - put them on edge, put them on nerve
• 13:56
  - so that we may be supportive.
• 13:59
  - Yeah. Again, we're security, but
• 14:02
  - here we do it with anything we do,
• 14:04
  - whether it's a transient population
• 14:07
  - that's, you know, in the playground that we
• 14:10
  - need to ask to move along,
• 14:12
  - fighting
• 14:13
  - parents who are no longer together.
• 14:16
  - It's it's an empathy, sympathy based kind of
• 14:19
  - program. It's
• 14:22
  - you know, we're gonna address behavioral issues. We
• 14:24
  - have processes
• 14:25
  - in place where folks
• 14:28
  - can't
• 14:29
  - follow the basic,
• 14:31
  - you know, code of conduct of today's,
• 14:34
  - society.
• 14:35
  - We're, you know, we're gonna work with them
• 14:37
  - on that. But
• 14:38
  - it's that empathy sympathy thing to where
• 14:41
  - if you can do that and
• 14:43
  - they can tell you're being sincere,
• 14:46
  - nine times out of 10, we don't have
• 14:48
  - to escalate to our law enforcement partners.
• 14:51
  - So that would be
• 14:54
  - probably
• 14:56
  - the children's hospital
• 14:59
  - uniquely,
• 14:59
  - you're dealing with just the bigger volume of
• 15:02
  - people because a family unit is much bigger
• 15:04
  - than one person.
• 15:06
  - And you have to a lot of times,
• 15:08
  - things we do, we have to do twice
• 15:10
  - because you gotta do
• 15:12
  - you know, for bio mom.
• 15:13
  - Now you wanna do it for bio dad
• 15:15
  - because they don't wanna be in the same
• 15:16
  - room together.
• 15:17
  - And you've gotta try to balance that. And
• 15:19
  - then again, two, you don't wanna do everything
• 15:22
  - twice because then the medical staff,
• 15:25
  - you know, they're extremely busy. We want them
• 15:27
  - out caring for the kids, not being family
• 15:30
  - meetings and and talking with folks. So that
• 15:32
  - that would probably be the big difference between
• 15:35
  - a child based,
• 15:36
  - security program and an adult only program. And
• 15:39
  - then on top of that,
• 15:41
  - you throw in our behavioral, you know, site
• 15:43
  - kinda components to it, and that takes on
• 15:46
  - a whole another
• 15:47
  - kinda thing. And that's where we really ramp
• 15:50
  - up the empathy and the sympathy,
• 15:52
  - to make sure that, you know, that just
• 15:54
  - not only the kids have everything they need,
• 15:56
  - but the staff, the caregivers,
• 15:58
  - our staff.
• 16:00
  - We have a great,
• 16:02
  - EAP, mental health
• 16:04
  - department here that takes care of our staff
• 16:06
  - and make sure we have everything we need
• 16:08
  - so we can do our job. So,
• 16:10
  - very different, very complicated, but we absolutely have
• 16:13
  - the tools and resources that TCH,
• 16:16
  - has to to give us. So
• 16:19
  - Chris, thank you for highlighting all of that.
• 16:21
  - That's certainly going to be very helpful for
• 16:23
  - anyone who's listening to this.
• 16:25
  - You mentioned also
• 16:27
  - well, you mentioned several times how important it
• 16:29
  - is to have the right people and how
• 16:31
  - to how when you're executing your mission, how
• 16:34
  - important that is to keep in mind.
• 16:36
  - You've also mentioned, you know, the building blocks
• 16:38
  - and and other information that other health systems
• 16:40
  - might need to implement,
• 16:42
  - some of these
• 16:43
  - measures that you've taken on down at Texas
• 16:46
  - Children Children's rather. But is there anything else
• 16:49
  - that you think someone
• 16:51
  - who wants to
• 16:53
  - follow in your footsteps, let's say, should know?
• 16:57
  - You probably just wanna make sure you've got
• 16:58
  - your
• 17:00
  - your priorities
• 17:01
  - in order.
• 17:03
  - Like I said, the pediatric security supports patients,
• 17:05
  - parents, guardians,
• 17:07
  - you know, the family members. You gotta have
• 17:09
  - your key areas,
• 17:11
  - you know, for family centered care.
• 17:14
  - You gotta again, what what's your priority? What
• 17:16
  - are you gonna look to focus on?
• 17:18
  - It's
• 17:20
  - our officers have to balance that welcoming environment
• 17:24
  - with a rather high level of safety and
• 17:26
  - professionalism.
• 17:29
  - So you get
• 17:31
  - that'll transfer really to any health care
• 17:34
  - if you
• 17:36
  - set the right priorities. And
• 17:38
  - in today's trending,
• 17:40
  - what you know, unfortunately, turn the TV on,
• 17:43
  - read a newspaper,
• 17:44
  - it's workplace violence,
• 17:46
  - it's emergency preparedness,
• 17:49
  - and then you get your usual access control,
• 17:51
  - staff safety,
• 17:54
  - you know, what's your threat management plan look
• 17:56
  - like, and you partner with protection for,
• 18:00
  - the critical infrastructure. So to kinda sum up
• 18:03
  - that question, Chris, is it it's it's priorities.
• 18:06
  - It's gonna be different for every organization. It's
• 18:08
  - gonna be different for every
• 18:10
  - hospital. It varies,
• 18:12
  - with our our partner organizations here in the
• 18:14
  - med center. You know, what we do here,
• 18:17
  - a half mile down the road, they're gonna
• 18:18
  - be doing a little differently.
• 18:20
  - But, again, it's what's your priorities? What are
• 18:22
  - you looking to do?
• 18:24
  - Chris, I can't thank you enough for coming
• 18:25
  - on today and and sharing all your knowledge
• 18:27
  - about this topic that is evolving all the
• 18:30
  - time. And, honestly, I can't wait until the
• 18:31
  - next time our pass cross. Absolutely. I appreciate
• 18:34
  - your time, Chris.