Risk Assessment: Tools, Techniques, and Their Applications

17.2 Case Study 1: Intruder

One of the scariest types of events that have become far too common is an armed intruder who intends to do harm to the occupants of a building. A vulnerability assessment can be used to help identify those vulnerabilities of the building that can contribute to the event. These types of assessments can be performed using PHA, failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA), tree analysis techniques, and even probabilistic risk assessment techniques. No matter what the technique is, the vulnerability assessment assumes an intruder will attempt to gain access to a building. The scenarios that are exercised during the assessment must be realistic and reasonable. For instance, a realistic and reasonable approach is to assume one or two armed individuals will seek to kill and injure as many employees in a corporate office as possible. It is unreasonable and unlikely that a squad of ninjas with intent of world domination will invade a local car dealership.

The types of intruder scenarios exercised for a community hospital vulnerability assessment might include:

• disgruntled employee seeking revenge;
• disgruntled patient or family member seeking revenge;
• estranged father trying to abduct or harm a new baby;
• drug-related invasion of a pharmacy;
• mental patient reeks havoc;
• patient has a bad reaction to a drug and reeks havoc;
• random violence.

Hospitals are especially vulnerable because of the mix of patients, staff, family members, and drugs. Most hospitals, until the ...