Caring for Safety

One of Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center's highest priorities is keeping patients, families, and staff members safe and secure in all of our facilities. The Medical Center is a leader in taking a proactive approach to security. The best approach to security includes many layers, a philosophy the medical center has embraced. Some of the steps we’ve taken to enhance security include:
 

• The medical center has a minimum of ten security officers on duty around the clock. Additional officers work during the day when the need is greatest. The Medical Center's well-trained security officers contracted through Securitas must complete Management of Aggressive Behaviors (MOAB) training on how to recognize, reduce, and manage violent and aggressive behavior, as well as American Red Cross Basic Life Support for Healthcare Providers, including CPR, AED, and obstructed airway - for adult, child, and infant patients.
• For more than 20 years, the medical center has paid for a Bangor Police Department officer to be in the Emergency Department for four hours each night/seven days a week.
• In 2012, the medical center was the first hospital in Maine to use a metal detector to screen all patients who come into the Emergency Department. Approximately 80,000 people are screened each year.
• The medical center conducts drills to test its readiness to respond to safety and security issues and identify opportunities for improvement.

We also take additional measures to keep employees safe in the workplace. The medical center Workplace Violence Prevention team, which includes staff nurses and other employees, works to reduce and mitigate the effects of violence at the hospital and other medical center facilities. The team develops and updates policies to ensure that the medical center’s approach to preventing workplace violence is proactive and effective. The team also reviews incidents of workplace violence to determine the causes and develop strategies to improve our approach.

The Workplace Violence Prevention Team has enhanced staff training by developing a new education and training plan that includes educational requirements employees will need to fulfill each year.

We understand that the events that require a visit to the hospital are often stressful and emotional. The medical center is here to help. By layering many strategies for keeping patients, visitors, and employees safe and secure in our hospital, we can assure that our focus remains, rightly, on high quality care of the sick and injured.