Bad hospital security
Some time ago we had to take someone to the emergency room of a large and well-respected hospital. For reasons that still escape us, we went from the need to have her heart checked to the psych emergency room.
Now, in truth, we thought they were going to prescribe a sedative, and didn’t think through the implications fully, and in retrospect should not have allowed her to go to the psych emergency room. In fact, they had no particular intention of letting her walk out of there whenever she wanted, and they didn’t particularly want us in there. Indeed, the only reason we were allowed in was that we called the police, and they decided it was better to have us in there than to have the police show up.
And here is where it gets interesting.
When they allowed us in, they made us check our overcoat and our bag and our phone. They did not, however, ask us about weapons, so we had our usual collection of knives, guns, and clubs. While comforting to us – we were certainly assured that we could get both of us out any time we chose – it seems odd that they would let heavily armed people into what was ostensibly a somewhat secure area containing potentially violent people.
We will, at some point, drop by the office of the director of security and query him on this, and offer a subscription to ÆGIS Journal.
