Board puts off vote on Taser use in hospital

Christiana Care would be the first Delaware hospital to outfit its constables with Taser weapons under a plan being considered by the state Board of Examiners of Constables.

The board, which this week delayed a decision on allowing the weapons, will not vote until the Council on Police Training has an opportunity to consider the adoption of uniform statewide standards for Taser use by police officers, said Col. Thomas F. MacLeish, Delaware State Police superintendent and chairman of the examining board. That discussion is scheduled for an April 17 meeting.

Jeff Benyo, Christiana's director of public safety, said the request to arm constables was not due to a recent rash of violence at local hospitals.

"It's just another option or tool that's available out there that's been shown to be effective," he said.

No other hospital in the state has plans to equip its security officers with Tasers or electronic stun guns.

But at the national level, there's been a slight increase in discussions about adding those weapons to hospital security measures, said Tom Smith, president of the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety, a 1,600-member organization of professionals who direct security and safety programs in health care institutions.

The association has not taken a position on the issue. Smith said less than 5 percent of hospitals have security personnel equipped with Taser weapons.

"If the threat level gets beyond the point where the patient can't be controlled, the rules of engagement are different," Smith said. "It occurs when the patients can't be controlled using the typical patient-restraint techniques [such as physical holds]."

Smith said a hospital needs to consider the response time of its local police agency and whether it experiences a high number of assaults.

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services do not consider the use of weapons as a safe, appropriate way to intervene in health care settings. Those weapons include pepper spray, Mace, nightsticks, Tasers and stun guns.

MacLeish has said that Christiana already has general approval from the board for its constables to carry firearms, although none of them currently does. He favors allowing the use of Tasers, with proper training.

Last month, state police were called to Christiana Hospital near Stanton after a contractor allegedly punched his supervisor and attacked him with pepper spray and a knife.

And recently at Wilmington Hospital, a patient who did not want to be discharged grabbed a nurse and struck an officer.

Christiana Care uses about 40 privately paid constables to provide security at both of its hospitals.

Its policy calls for Tasers to be used on people who pose an imminent risk of violence to others.

"Our staff is highly trained already," Benyo said. "This is giving them another option. It's a secondary option."

Rita Marocco, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Delaware, said using a 50,000-volt Taser on patients who already have serious health problems could put them more at risk.

"I think it's a bad move," she said. "Police officers are still struggling to figure out how to use them properly and they've had them for years."

She said better training for constables would eliminate the need for Taser weapons.

"You cannot replace good training with objects that are going to cause potential harm," she said. "They need to put that money toward training to deal with an unruly patient."

This article contains information from the Associated Press. Contact Hiran Ratnayake at 324-2547 or hratnayake@delawareonline.com.

christiana Care seeks to equip constables with electronic guns
By HIRAN RATNAYAKE, The News Journal