Hospital and clinic security: patients, staff, access

• Public: main entrance, reception, cash desks, canteen, waiting rooms.
• Controlled: wards, outpatient clinics, ward corridors — with visiting hours, schedules and signage.
• Restricted: pharmacy, operating theatres, laboratories, intensive care units, maternity and neonatal units, medical records, plant rooms.
• Cards or keys: access to restricted areas is named, and a lost card is cancelled the same day.

A guard is not a lock. Their job is to notice who is moving where they shouldn’t, ask politely “can I help you?” and alert. The zones, and what the guard does in each, are written in the post orders.

• Position: the guard sees both the waiting room and the door to the treatment area, and watches who passes from one to the other.
• Ambulance entrance: always clear, with no parked vehicles and no public using it as a way in.
• Calling for help: a button or radio at triage, at reception and in treatment rooms.
• Companions: one companion per patient in the treatment area where the department allows it; the rest wait in the waiting room.
• Information: waiting without information breeds tension; a visible explanation of triage helps staff and guard alike.

1. Early: the guard approaches at the first raised voice, not after the first shove.
2. One person speaks: the guard or the nurse, not three at once; calm voice, simple sentences, naming what they see (“I can see you’ve been waiting a long time”).
3. Distance and a way out: nobody stands between an angry person and a corner; staff always have a route to step away.
4. Backup: a second guard or the shift lead comes without the first having to shout for them — via a button or a radio code.
5. The line: when there is a threat or violence, call the police; the guard acts only within the law.
6. After: record the incident and check in with the staff who went through it.

A patient who is aggressive because of their health condition is a patient first. Medical staff decide on their care; the guard protects the people around them and follows staff instructions.

• Hours: posted at the entrance and online; out of hours, only with the ward’s permission.
• Visitor pass: where used, issued at reception and returned on the way out.
• Special units: intensive care, neonatal and psychiatric units have their own rules, which the guard knows from the post orders.
• Barred visitors: if management or staff have decided someone may not visit a patient, that is written down and reaches every entrance.

• Entrances: one night entrance, usually next to the emergency department, with a guard; the rest locked and checked.
• Patrols: outpatient clinics, offices, basements, car parks and stairwells, with checkpoint logging.
• Escorts: staff finishing a shift can ask to be walked to their car.
• Communication: every department knows the number or code to call the guard, and the guard answers.

Night cover is counted in hours and posts, like any 24-hour post; see the guide to security guard shifts and working hours. OVIT logs every patrol on the Guardly platform, so management sees what happened overnight without waiting for the morning report.

• Pharmacy and drug stores: card or key for authorised staff only, the door checked on every patrol, an alert if it is found open.
• Maternity and neonatal: controlled entry and exit, and a written procedure to lock down the exits if a baby is reported missing.
• Psychiatric unit: entry and exit rules set by medical staff; the guard knows what to do if a patient leaves without permission.
• Records and IT rooms: locked, with an access list.
• Plant rooms: locked and on the patrol route, because medical equipment depends on them.

Every incident in a sensitive area is recorded at the time; see what a security incident report contains.

Article 20 of Directive 1/2011 of the Hellenic Data Protection Authority covers hospitals, clinics, surgeries, physiotherapy practices and diagnostic centres. For the protection of people and property:

• Allowed exclusively at: entrances and exits, cash desks, critical installations — for example plant rooms and medical-supply stores.
• Never allowed in: waiting rooms, canteens and eating areas, corridors, wards, examination or treatment rooms, toilets and washrooms, doctors’ offices, work areas of medical and nursing staff.
• Patient-care cameras: cameras for a medical purpose, such as in intensive care, have their own conditions (§2). If the same institution also runs security cameras, the control units must be kept separate (§2δ).

The general rules apply too: signs before the camera’s range (article 12), deletion within 15 working days at most if there is no incident (article 8), and no use to monitor or evaluate staff (art. 27, Greek Law 4624/2019, as the Hellenic DPA states). So security in corridors and wards rests on people and patrols, not cameras. Request a proposal for your hospital or clinic.