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As if MRSA, falls and medication errors weren't scary enough, hospitals in California had to be locked down recently after an anonymous male called a police dispatch center and threatened to bring his AK-47 to the hospital and "start shooting people". Police were not sure which hospital the caller was referring to, so three separate facilities were put on lock down for ~2 hours. After a thorough search, the facilities were reopened and the threat was deemed a hoax. Hospital shootings are thankfully rare, according to the CDC. Only 150 total shootings occurred between 2000 and 2011, 30% of which occured in the Emergency Department. Half of those shootings involved a gun that was stolen from a security officer or policeman in the ED. Other reasons for shootings include suicide, euthanizing an ill relative, or revenge. |
