Providence St. Joseph adds security measures

This November, tasers and body cameras are being added for security officers at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center to ensure the safety of patients, visitors and caregivers.

A certified and trained instructor and officer for Providence trained the security officers in how to use the taser. Each officer will be equipped with a taser and body camera when on duty. 

Dean Chrestenson, the Montana service area security manager, explained that this is a national movement in hospitals as workplace violence increases.  The service area includes the hospital in Polson and St. Patrick’s in Missoula.

“This isn't a Polson or a Missoula thing with this workplace violence increase. This is a national thing, and everybody in healthcare is trying to help address these safety concerns as best they can with what they have,” Chrestenson said. “It's a preventive measure to help try to keep everybody safe, because we see that, unfortunately, that kind of behavior is on the rise, and we're doing what we can to protect people.”

St. Patrick and St. Joseph are weapon-free campuses. However, with that policy, Chrestenson explained they still have incidents where people have a weapon on them, or they have had people threaten to go get a weapon.  

Chrestenson said in those situations they work with local law enforcement, but he explained it is helpful to have some self-defense tools available to deter those behaviors.   

“Our security officers are trained and efficient in the use of de-escalation techniques to diffuse a combative situation,” stated Chrestenson in the Providence Montana press release. “This new tool will help officers defend themselves and others during a violent encounter when someone is in imminent danger of injury or death.” 

Body cameras will be placed on the officer's chest and be activated when needed. The camera is always in a buffering mode, and officers will have to manually press a button when a situation arises for the recording to begin.  

The camera will record the last 60 seconds before it is activated and will include audio of the situation. This will then upload the video for Chrestenson to review later. The body cameras have a tool to redact conversations, pictures of people and healthcare information to ensure caregiver privacy and HIPAA compliance.“If something happens quickly and the officer has to hit their camera, they can catch what happened prior to that to help explain why their response was the way it was,” Chrestenson said. 

Chrestenson explained that most people don’t want to be recorded doing something inappropriate, so often these body cameras can help deescalate a situation. This also provides staff with evidence in case there is an assault or event that Providence Montana will need to turn over to local law enforcement.  

In September, a metal detector was installed at the public entrance of St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula. Chrestenson said St. Joseph Medical Center would also be in line to receive one in the future if the number of patients increases. He explained that putting one at St. Joseph would also require them to add additional staff to operate it.