UMC Health System is the latest healthcare organization to incorporate artificial intelligence into its operations.
It’s one of the few to use it to detect guns.
The health system in Lubbock, Texas, is adding an AI-based video analytics platform onto its existing security system that will detect, without using facial recognition software, whether someone is carrying a gun, said Jeff Hill, the system's vice president of operations. If the system from ZeroEyes detects a weapon, it will alert someone at ZeroEyes, who will determine whether a real threat exists. If so, UMC security staff at the hospital will be notified, he said.
Hill spoke about why the hospital thought the unspecified investment was necessary and why he didn’t opt for metal detectors. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What led you to invest in the system?
Following COVID-19, what we saw across the hospital industry, and certainly within our facility, was an increase in the number of threats and assaults on our healthcare workers. That has been a documented phenomenon happening across our country.
Then we started seeing things like what happened in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where there was an active shooter who went into a physician's office and shot [and killed four people]. And then shortly thereafter, there was an incident in Los Angeles where a person went into a hospital with a knife. These kinds of things scared our staff. I want to reassure and comfort our staff that we are taking measures to protect them. We're not ignoring what's happening in the community. We're trying to proactively help keep them safe and to put systems and processes and utilize technology in a way that helps us do a better job.
Have you had any incidents where providers were threatened with guns?
No, we’ve not had that situation happen. But I would be naïve to think that it couldn’t happen.
Did you look at any other alternatives?
The one thing that we didn't want to do was put in something that was very overt. And what I mean by that is you could go to the airport, or you could go to a courthouse, and you can see a metal detector that everybody has to run through. Healthcare is a competitive environment. And particularly in our community, there are two main hospitals. And what you don't want to do is send a signal inadvertently to customers who are choosing between one of two facilities. If a patient sees a metal detector, what they might subconsciously ask is, “Why does UMC have that metal detector? Perhaps this isn't safe environment. “ What this does is it allows us to surveil everyone in a way that people are not going to be interrupted or impeded in any way coming into or out of our facility.
How do you plan to address this with patients?
I don't know that we'll share this with every single patient or visitor who walks into the facility. I think it's pretty common in our community, and across the U.S., that there are cameras surveilling people all the time.
How about staff? What have been their reactions?
The staff has been positive and relieved to know that we're taking these steps. I haven't had any pushback. I get that there are some people who have different opinions. I think when we talk with them about the impact of a [metal detector] on the flow of patients and the unintended messages that are sent, our staff get it.
