Assaults on employees: what two hospitals are doing to upgrade security

In March, a 34-year-old cleaning employee was attacked and raped in knifepoint in an office area of SUNY Health Science Center University Hospital, Syracuse, NY. The attack occurred at 11:20 p.m. in an outpatient hematology clinic that is closed at night. The victim reported that the assailant asked for directions to another section of the hospital, and, instead of leaving the area, followed her down a hallway to an unoccupied office are, where he cut her on the hand and a leg, before exiting the hospital through the emergency room. In April, a 37-year-old employee at St. Bernardine Medical Center, San Bernardino, CA, was assaulted in a first-floor bathroom at 5 a.m. by an attacker who ripped her clothing and kicked her several times in the stomach before she fought him off, preventing her own rape. Her attack was similar to a December incident involving a 30-year-old hospital technician who was raped in a second-floor restroom at 2 a.m. Police originally suspected that both attacks may have been committed by a hospital employee, but Vicky Wilson, assistant administrator, says that assumption has changed. "We've fully cooperated with the police investigation and reviewed all of our former and current files, and, at this point, the police don't feel that any of the employees--either former, within the last two or three years, or current employees--are a likely suspect." Although the hospitals are 3,000 miles away from each other, the incidents are related in that they involve attacks upon employees and because each hospital took immediate action to upgrade security. In this report, we'll review in detail what they did.