The staff of Stanton Territorial Hospital in Canada's Northwest Territories wants security guards' role strengthened following a confrontation recently where a patient became violent in the emergency room, according to an article on the CBC News website.
An employee union is calling for security guards to be able to step in physically when patients are unruly, but Dr. Anna Reid, the hospital's medical director, said the hospital isn't allowed to hire guards with that kind of authority.
"We do have security guards in our emergency department who are highly trained in de-escalating situations, but one of the issues here in the Northwest Territories is there is no legislation in place that allows us to hire a security person who's allowed to physically restrain someone," she said in the article.
Although both doors to the emergency department require a key card for entry, hospital staff said the violent patient simply lifted the latch of the hinged counter at the triage desk and entered the emergency department.
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