How Unauthorized Visitors Can Create Security Risks in Nursing Homes
Roughly 60% of nursing home residents worldwide never receive visitors during their stays. They experience long-term harm because of feelings of abandonment and loneliness. Yet this lack of attention isn’t the greatest harm related to visitations that nursing home residents face. Instead, unauthorized visitors pose an even greater risk to residents, employees, and others.
The term “unauthorized visitor” refers to anyone who hasn’t received permission to access a facility or property. The reasons these people visit a nursing home can vary widely. This guide covers everything you need to know about unauthorized visitors, including the different types, the security risks, and how an experienced nursing home abuse lawyer like those at Peterson Law Office can help.
The Most Common Unauthorized Visitors
Authorized visitors include facilities maintenance personnel, administrative and medical staff, security officers, and approved vendors. In some scenarios, any of these people might become an unauthorized visitor as well. Consider the most common types of people who visit nursing homes without permission or a prior heads-up:
– Corporate inspectors
– Local, state, or federal inspectors
– Investigative journalists
– New product or service salespeople
– Approved vendors in unapproved areas
– Off-duty employees
– Overstay visitors
– Unacknowledged visitors
– Family and friends
– Homeless people
– Thieves and vandals
– Former employees
– Former love interests
– Abusers and kidnappers
In some cases, such as with corporate and public inspectors, unauthorized visitors improve safety and security over time. Their visits are designed to guarantee that nursing home administrators and employees follow company-wide policies and related laws. Journalists and salespeople might be harmful or helpful. For example, a journalist who gains access to a site without permission might expose horrible living conditions. They might also upset residents at a well-maintained facility. A persistent, unwelcome salesperson might distract staff members during an emergency.
The rest of the list notes visitors who cause the most harm. For example, an approved vendor in an unapproved area might cause a patient with a heart condition enough of a scare to trigger a heart attack. An off-duty or former employee might distract on-duty staff from a patient at a critical moment or even from noticing other unauthorized visitors. An overstay visitor or an approved visitor who slips past security or other staff before checking in might refuse to leave, threaten one or more employees, or cause another type of disruptive event.
Family members or friends might attempt to remove an elderly patient who insists they don’t belong at the facility, even when one or more family members with medical power of attorney and the patient’s physician or a court have approved the residency. A family member or non-relative who wants to wrest control of a resident’s medical care and finances from someone else might remove them from the site without prior authorization. A homeless person might wander onto a site and unintentionally scare residents and staff or damage property.
Worst-case scenarios involve people who cause intentional harm. For example, pranksters, graffiti artists, thieves, and vandals access nursing homes to damage or steal facility or patient property. A former employee or love interest with a grudge might target and attempt to harm one or more residents or staff members. A patient’s former abuser might try to verbally or physically abuse them on-site or remove them from the facility and then perform these and other forms of violence. Kidnappers in general often target nursing home residents and workers for financial gains. A resident of means might be targeted by one or more kidnappers who want to extort their family for money.
Top Nursing Home Security Improvements
The best nursing home administrators and site owners take the steps necessary to protect employees and residents. They know that increased security doesn’t create a prison atmosphere. Instead, it gives everyone peace of mind that they’re safe from unauthorized visitors and frightening scenarios that can play out at properties. Facilities that have the following security elements offer nearly the greatest level of protection:
– Site Security Upgrades: These sites have few and locked facility access point doors, gated high security fences or walls, with or without guards, and monitoring cameras in all residential and visitor traffic areas. All elements provide a shield against unapproved visitors and act as a deterrent.
– Efficient Traffic Policies: The building management company restricts approved visitor traffic to a low daily volume in specific zones. They allow access via a few doors connected to hallways that pass employee desks and monitored public visitation areas. They might also require electronic key access.
– Strict Visitation Protocols: All visitors must have valid identification upon entry, sign a logbook, and carry or wear a badge or other proof that they’re authorized to access specific areas. Site administrators regularly review these security measures. They might adjust the rules to meet a specific patient’s needs or account for building or staff changes that affect site security and visits.
– Training and Reviews: Staff members are trained to follow all security measures, especially spatial awareness and reporting training, to help them better recognize potential threats and take action to safeguard themselves and their charges. They also learn how to perform thorough background checks of any new-hire candidates, which can help reduce the risk of hiring anyone with a history of allowing unwanted guests access at other facilities.
Local Professional Advice and Legal Support
Sadly, even the best nursing homes sometimes deal with unauthorized visitors that cause undue stress and physical, emotional, or financial harm. In these cases, a victim or their loved ones can seek a nursing home abuse lawyer to offer advice and legal support. A lawyer can investigate claims, alert authorities, and pursue justice for their client through relevant insurance and court systems.
Elderly persons in need of permanent care and younger people who use nursing homes while struggling after surgery or with a serious disability, or their families, don’t need to research a potential new residence alone. A local abuse lawyer is best positioned to know which facilities in a geographic region are exemplary and offer the most protection against unauthorized visitors. They can also advise their clients against choosing properties that had serious past incidents.