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The Joint Commission (previously the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) is an independent, not-for-profit organization that sets standards for healthcare organizations and accredits and certifies more than 15,000 organizations and programs in the United States . The environment of care (EC) standards require the development, implementation, evaluation, and continuous improvement of written management programs for seven major areas. One of these areas is security.

Hospitals seeking accreditation are required to establish and maintain a security management program. The risks in a healthcare environment include security for individuals including staff, visitors, and patients; equipment, and materials. And because a healthcare security program touches on all areas of a healthcare campus -- everything from life safety to hazardous materials – the standards of care provide a broad range of useful elements for mitigating risks. According to the Rationale for EC.02.01.01 (the Joint Commission’s standard for an organization’s management of safety and security risks), “it is important to identify these risks in advance so that the [organization] can prevent or effectively respond to incidents.” And since many times security risks are intentional, as opposed to accidental like many safety risks, security incidents can be avoided through use of Access Controls, Panic Alerts, Emergency Call, CCTV, and Infant Protection Systems. Below are a few of the Elements of Performance for the EC standards set forth by the Joint Commission:

• The hospital identifies safety and security risks associated with the environment of care. Risks are identified from internal sources such as ongoing monitoring of the environment, results of root cause analyses, results of annual proactive risk assessments of high-risk processes, and from credible external sources such as Sentinel Event Alerts.
  
  
• The hospital takes action to minimize or eliminate identified safety and security risks in the physical environment.
  
  
• The hospital maintains all grounds and equipment.
  
  
• The hospital identifies individuals entering its facilities.
  
  
• The hospital controls access to and from areas it identifies as security sensitive.
  
  
• The hospital has written procedures to follow in the event of a security incident, including an infant or pediatric abduction.