Hospitals will take a look at dangers of street gangs: Must take steps to ensure violence keeps its distance

By Ed Johnson, APP.com

The proliferation of street gangs and their attendant violence has forced hospitals to take a closer look at how they can insulate themselves from a growing danger.

Emergency rooms are no strangers to the aftermath of street violence, said Mary A. Ditri, professional practice and clinical affairs director for the N.J. Hospital Association, but now they must take steps to ensure that gang violence doesn’t make the hospital itself a battleground.

It seems counterintuitive that a place dedicated to healing and saving lives could find itself on dangerous ground, said Lou Crisafi, a gang expert who now works for the Jackson-based McNamara & Associates, specialists in preventing workplace violence. Yet it’s that very sense that it can’t happen here that has to be overcome, he added.

With the well-manicured campus of Ocean Medical Center in Brick as a backdrop, about 30 hospital staffers gathered to learn about criminal enterprises whose cultures are the antithesis of those who would save lives.

Lou Jordan, a veteran of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and a former director of the Asbury Park Police department, showed the gathering just how quickly violence can come off the streets and into the scrubbed corridors of a hospital.

Dressed in a tricked-out jacket covered with sports images, he demonstrated how a wounded gangster could smuggle five guns, two knives and assorted razors into an examination room.

“That’s just how easy it is,” Jordan said as he showed each weapon’s hiding place. “And here’s something else to think about. You’re concerned with helping me. I may be concerned with getting out of there. A wounded gang member knows you called the cops, and they’re probably the last people he wants to see.”

Crisafi took the scenario a step further, pretending to be a friend who came in with the supposedly wounded Jordan.

“Maybe I’m the friend who’s got his back,” he said, pulling out a comb that was quickly converted into a dagger. “Or maybe I’m the guy that came to finish the job.”

For hospital staffers the lesson was twofold: Know how to recognize a possible gang member and be aware of the danger he or she brings with them.

“You need to have a plan. You need to be aware. You need policies,” Crisafi said. “To say we’ve always managed in the past will get someone hurt, maybe killed. What you got away with once is always good until you don’t get away with it anymore.”

Marybeth Kady, a nurse manager for the hospital’s emergency department, said the training was an eye opener.

“It’s helped me to recognize what’s just a scary fact of life for all our hospitals,” she said. “I thought a lot of these hats and colorful clothing were just fashion trends. Today I saw different.”

For Meridian Health, which runs Ocean Medical Center, the course is the first in a series to be taught at each of the system’s hospitals, said Donna Sellman, the Brick hospital’s public relations manager.

“We’re working to be proactive,” she added. “What they showed us here today is a fact of life that all hospital personnel need to be aware of.”

Training sessions have also been planned for next month at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune and Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, Sellman said.