Weapons detection systems rolling out at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — New weapons detection technology is set to roll out at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt next week.
“This was part of a journey in our workplace violence work,” Dr. Meg Rush, president of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital, told News 2.
She said that journey accelerated following the deadly Covenant School shooting in March 2023.
“That caused a little bit of a pivot to think about, ‘Do we need metal detection?'” Rush said.
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A metal detector has been in place at the Emergency Department at Monroe Carell for decades and will remain as is, but starting next week, new weapons detection technology will be in place at the main entrances on the first and second floors. Those entering the children’s hospital will pass through an Evolv weapons detector on the first floor and an OpenGate weapons detector on the second floor.
“We will actually have different weapons detection systems in each place because of the space allocation that they require to set up, but the front entrance of the hospital and then the entrance off the parking garage will have weapons detection and that will allow at least, at a minimum, two people to go through, including strollers and wheelchairs, as well as diaper bags,” Rush explained. “The Evolv system, which will be off the garage, will actually allow a lot of people to walk through. Those are similar to the devices that are down, for instance, at Bridgestone and at TPAC.”
In addition to the screening technology, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital is planning to add a visitor management system over the next several months. According to Rush, the system will use a photo ID and print visitor passes.
“It allows us to manage our visitors, and it allows us to make sure that those people have a reason to be in the hospital. It will also allow us to do very quick background checks,” she said. “There are lots of different social situations that we need to be mindful of, and sometimes we have 100% of that information and sometimes we find it out a little bit later.”
Rush added that she hopes the new security measures will mitigate some of the concerns hospital staff members think about every day.
“We do our best work when we aren’t worried about our own safety, and so I think it’s really important. I think it’s sad that we’re at this place where we have to have to do this, but I think, given the incidents that have happened in other clinic facilities and hospitals across the country over the last few years, and then I think when it hit in our own backyard last spring, that made us all kind of pause and say, ‘We need to accelerate this,'” she told News 2.
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The new weapons detection technology should be in place at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital starting Thursday, April 18. Then, officials plan to roll out the new technology to Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s main campus over the next few months, followed by Vanderbilt Health’s One Hundred Oaks property.
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