By Chris J. Quick, Managing Member/CEO at Quick Group – Forensic Accounting and Financial Investigations
It’s becoming all too common – another workplace shooting. The latest, on June 30, 2017, in New York City. As reported in the New York Times and various other news outlets, a disgruntled doctor armed with a AR-15 rifle and wearing a lab coat went on a rampage in a Bronx hospital where he had worked, killing another doctor and wounding six others, five of them seriously, before setting himself on fire and shooting himself in the head.
This incident, as many before it, brings up many questions.
How does a former employee with a troubled past enter a hospital with AR-15 undetected? Were there adequate security measures in place to prevent this incident from occurring in a hospital which is a place of safety, care, and comfort? Were there warning signs that were ignored by management? Why was the doctor allowed back into the workplace after resigning in lieu of being terminated for sexual harassment? Why was the hospital not conducting pre-employment due diligence that would have made them aware of the doctor’s criminal background, in this case, a conviction for unlawful imprisonment in the second degree relating to a sexual assault charge? Many of these questions will likely be answered by subsequent investigations conducted by the police and hospital authorities.
These workplace incidents should also raise questions for business owners, employers and employees alike.
- Am I doing what needs to be done to make my workplace and employees protected from such incidents?
- Does my workplace have preventative measures in place to alert of employees who may be prone to violence?
- And, how should employees react if a similar incident should occur at my workplace?
Don’t become complacent thinking that this cannot happen to my business or workplace.
These incidents are becoming all too common in recent years. They happen in large and small cities, as well as in large and small business, throughout the country.
As a business owner or employer, are you doing all you can to protect your employees?
Quick Group provides security consulting and training and educational services that will work with you to answer your workplace violence questions. Quick Group provides security assessments, training, and preventive measures in workplace violence. Our security consulting services also provide action plans in how to react to workplace violence if it should occur at your business or workplace.
Call (843) 800-0550 or visit our website today to find out how we can help