In 2022, the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) received 36 separate serious incident reports involving 32 medical facilities—including a bomb threat. In response to those reports, OIG teams of auditors and criminal investigators visited 70 VA medical facilities in September 2022 to assess security and to issue a formal report .
Noting that VA policy includes an “extensive list of security safeguards” for medical facilities to implement, the OIG focused its review on those that “a person with a reasonable level of security knowledge could assess.” According to their report, released in February, they identified a variety of security vulnerabilities and deficiencies, ranging from shortages of police officers to radios with poor signal strength.
For one, the OIG says, the facilities were designed to provide a welcoming environment, which means the public can enter the grounds freely at many different points. But the open-campus design makes it more difficult to balance security with easy and prompt access for patients. Consequently, the OIG says, “threats may originate from many locations within the medical facility campus itself or in the nearby community.”
Walking around the perimeters of the facility buildings, the OIG teams assessed the security level of 2960 public and nonpublic access doors. They found that 87% of public doors did not have an active security presence, and of those, 23% also did not have a security camera. Moreover, 17% of nonpublic doors were unlocked; 97% of those did not have a security presence, and 43% did not have a security camera. Even more concerning: Some of those doors led to sensitive or restricted facility areas. For example, at one midwestern facility, an unlocked nonpublic access door led to the surgical intensive care unit.
The OIG teams also assessed training records for 170 police officers across the 70 facilities and found that nearly all officers were compliant with training requirements. Most respondents also reported they received adequate training to perform their job duties and provided numerous positive indicators. Well trained or not, though, a notable problem in maintaining security, the OIG teams found, was there simply weren’t enough officers.
The OIG has repeatedly issued reports on significant police officer staffing shortages since at least 2018. VA police officers are not only empowered to make arrests, carry firearms while on duty, and investigate criminal activity within VA’s jurisdiction, but also assist individuals on medical campuses “in myriad ways,” the OIG notes. Staffing shortages are likely to compromise overall facility security, morale, and staff retention and underscore the need for maintaining communication with local law enforcement agencies for assistance, the OIG report points out.
In the OIG surveys, security personnel often noted they were understaffed. Although VA guidance calls for at least 2 VA police officers on duty at all times, 21% of respondents said they were aware of a duty shift during which minimum police staffing requirements were not met. About 37% of respondents expressed concerns about the physical security at their facilities. Some pointed out that the lack of VA police on duty could make it difficult to respond to threats like an active shooter.