Hospital provides security escorts

As health care systems across the country grapple with rising rates of violence, the University of New Mexico (UNM) Hospital in Albuquerque, N.M., is offering employees and patients a personal solution: security escorts. Anyone on the UNM North Campus — site of the hospital, health clinics, the UNM School of Medicine and several other university buildings — can call a dispatch line to request one.

Felix Funes, executive director of hospital security at UNM Hospital, notes that the escort service began as a proprietary service from the academic departments to the hospital. “We’re an academic teaching center, so we have a lot of students interacting with our facility,” he says.

Today, a call to the dispatch line goes directly to the UNM Hospital security operations center, which is managed around the clock. Dispatchers triage calls to determine the level of risk and let callers know approximately how long it might take for an escort to arrive. A security officer is dispatched, based on location and availability, with backup support provided by the UNM Police Department.

The dispatch line remains an in-demand service. “Last year, we received 2,023 calls for escort service, primarily after hours,” Funes says. “During normal business hours, when most of our ambulatory clinic offices are open, we have shuttles running and golf cart service, so we don’t get as many requests during the daytime as we do in the evening.”

While maintaining the line has a major impact on safety, it has minimal impact on staffing. Work performed by the security escort amounts to 0.5 full-time employees, on average, per shift. “The average call and time of service is between eight and 10 minutes. Last year, we provided close to 350 hours of actual time on service,” Funes says.

The operations center also monitors access control cameras for the hospital. Outside of clinical spaces, 42 emergency blue light phones across the campus and a security app connect to UNM Police dispatch as well as hospital security. The security team also can review camera footage in the targeted area to direct law enforcement where to go.

The health system regularly promotes the dispatch line and other services to maintain awareness of their services among employees and students.

“People generally aren’t aware of security until we’re needed,” Funes says. “And safety and security are a concern more than ever nowadays.”