Hospital Guest Pass

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I pulled another all-nighter in the ER last night
My mother has been sick for almost a year and this happens often. Nothing nice but nothing new.
I'm a one man show as far as help.

That aside, the hospital now requires any guests to sign in for a pass to leave the ER doors. That requires
a drivers license and in that process they scan it and from the look I had seen that took about 3 minutes and I suspect
they run you for priors or to see if you are on a watch list. Luckily I have zero to hide but does anybody know exactly what they see when they scan your ID? Honestly I'm transporting my Mother to the ER and I have to pony up my license before I can follow her out of the waiting room. I was not so thrilled to give my ID.

Right outside of the ER are the druggies looking for pain killers and selling drugs right out on the street. Of course that walk to the ER from the parking lot has zero security or police... nice...... And this is in small town USA
 
Originally Posted By: AirgunSavant
Luckily I have zero to hide but does anybody know exactly what they see when they scan your ID?


Why not just ask them? I'm sure there's paperwork or a policy somewhere explaining why they do it, what they need it for, etc. Just remember that hospitals can be a privately-run entity so it's not like you can just submit a FOIA request to see what they're doing.

Many states use a 2D barcode on IDs which contain a small amount of data. The specific data varies from state to state.

You could be right that they are looking for certain offenses such as narcotics theft.
 
Hospitals know people are less likely to cause trouble when they have a photo ID of you and all your information. Sometimes a visitor / family member can get very upset with staff, nurses, doctors and get out of control. Same goes for patients coming to ER demanding pain meds..... or they will sue the doctors and hospital, cops get called to escort person out of ER.

Some hospitals now have metal detectors to get into the hospital as a guest. HCA is now installing metal detectors in ALL their hospitals.

Hospital bill collectors want your ID if you are a patient to know who to go after when they scan your drivers license.
 
[color:#FFFF00]Right outside of the ER are the druggies looking for pain killers and selling drugs right out on the street. Of course that walk to the ER from the parking lot has zero security or police... nice...... And this is in small town USA
[/color]

These days, I do not leave home un-armed. The "shady people" are out in droves around here. We have a huge influx of out of state workers in this area, due to several major plant construction jobs going on, and the traffic is terrible and crime is on the rise!
 
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Originally Posted By: AirgunSavant
I pulled another all-nighter in the ER last night
My mother has been sick for almost a year and this happens often. Nothing nice but nothing new.
I'm a one man show as far as help.

That aside, the hospital now requires any guests to sign in for a pass to leave the ER doors. That requires
a drivers license and in that process they scan it and from the look I had seen that took about 3 minutes and I suspect
they run you for priors or to see if you are on a watch list. Luckily I have zero to hide but does anybody know exactly what they see when they scan your ID? Honestly I'm transporting my Mother to the ER and I have to pony up my license before I can follow her out of the waiting room. I was not so thrilled to give my ID.

Right outside of the ER are the druggies looking for pain killers and selling drugs right out on the street. Of course that walk to the ER from the parking lot has zero security or police... nice...... And this is in small town USA


If you are signing the paperwork as a guarantor, you might be assuming responsibility for your mom's bills and they need your information.

You can ask the admitting clerk the next time you are there why they are doing it.
 
Interesting. A few weeks back I spent the weekend with my wife at the hospital downtown while she was laid out from a pulmonary embolism. I was never asked anything. And this was a downtown hospital.
 
Originally Posted By: EricG
[color:#FFFF00]Right outside of the ER are the druggies looking for pain killers and selling drugs right out on the street. Of course that walk to the ER from the parking lot has zero security or police... nice...... And this is in small town USA
[/color]

These days, I do not leave home un-armed. The "shady people" are out in droves around here. We have a huge influx of out of state workers in this area, due to several major plant construction jobs going on, and the traffic is terrible and crime is on the rise!

Most hospitals here are correctly posted against firearms
 
Originally Posted By: Alfred_B
Originally Posted By: AirgunSavant
I pulled another all-nighter in the ER last night
My mother has been sick for almost a year and this happens often. Nothing nice but nothing new.
I'm a one man show as far as help.

That aside, the hospital now requires any guests to sign in for a pass to leave the ER doors. That requires
a drivers license and in that process they scan it and from the look I had seen that took about 3 minutes and I suspect
they run you for priors or to see if you are on a watch list. Luckily I have zero to hide but does anybody know exactly what they see when they scan your ID? Honestly I'm transporting my Mother to the ER and I have to pony up my license before I can follow her out of the waiting room. I was not so thrilled to give my ID.

Right outside of the ER are the druggies looking for pain killers and selling drugs right out on the street. Of course that walk to the ER from the parking lot has zero security or police... nice...... And this is in small town USA


If you are signing the paperwork as a guarantor, you might be assuming responsibility for your mom's bills and they need your information.

You can ask the admitting clerk the next time you are there why they are doing it.


I did not read that anywhere in the OP's post-it's a pass he is signing. It looks like the hospital wants to know who is running around the hospital late at night-to the best they can-that's why they are doing it.

It's painfully obvious what crowd the hospital is trying to keep out.

It's his MOM-she has medicare (or other insurance) and whatever other plans she has purchased. BTW-I'm sure she has long since signed any financial responsibility forms.
 
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The hospital can not run "priors" in the same manner as Law Enforcement. They do not have access to that database.

They can not even run a credit check on you without your consent.

All they could do is an internet background check of public records and check if you are on a sexual predator list. It is also possible the hospital maintains their own list of "blackballed" visitors with prior history but this would only be local to events at that hospital or its affiliates.

Making a copy of a Hospital Visitor's ID would be more like a visitor log that can be reviewed in the event that an incident is discovered in the future.

As for the OP not being thrilled, would he feel more comfortable knowing that anybody off the street has unregulated access to the halls and rooms of the hospital?
 
Originally Posted By: ArcticDriver
The hospital can not run "priors" in the same manner as Law Enforcement. They do not have access to that database.

They can not even run a credit check on you without your consent.

All they could do is an internet background check of public records and check if you are on a sexual predator list. It is also possible the hospital maintains their own list of "blackballed" visitors with prior history but this would only be local to events at that hospital or its affiliates.

Making a copy of a Hospital Visitor's ID would be more like a visitor log that can be reviewed in the event that an incident is discovered in the future.

As for the OP not being thrilled, would he feel more comfortable knowing that anybody off the street has unregulated access to the halls and rooms of the hospital?


You mean to tell me a mob of scum just 20 feet from the ER entrance is doing justice for the regulated access personnel since that is hospital property. Why is a police officer the one running the license's? It isn't the staff doing it.
I'm for everyone's safety but if I have to get into a fight to make it to the door I figure I can handle what's inside the building.
 
Originally Posted By: AirgunSavant
Originally Posted By: ArcticDriver
The hospital can not run "priors" in the same manner as Law Enforcement. They do not have access to that database.

They can not even run a credit check on you without your consent.

All they could do is an internet background check of public records and check if you are on a sexual predator list. It is also possible the hospital maintains their own list of "blackballed" visitors with prior history but this would only be local to events at that hospital or its affiliates.

Making a copy of a Hospital Visitor's ID would be more like a visitor log that can be reviewed in the event that an incident is discovered in the future.

As for the OP not being thrilled, would he feel more comfortable knowing that anybody off the street has unregulated access to the halls and rooms of the hospital?


You mean to tell me a mob of scum just 20 feet from the ER entrance is doing justice for the regulated access personnel since that is hospital property. Why is a police officer the one running the license's? It isn't the staff doing it.
I'm for everyone's safety but if I have to get into a fight to make it to the door I figure I can handle what's inside the building.


This is the first time you have mentioned that an actual Police Officer was the person who requested your DL. That would have been useful to include in your OP.
In this case, forget what I said in my post.

I don't really understand the rest of your post. Is it a County Hospital? As far as "handling" anything, I can only speak for myself when I say I would feel more comfortable that not just anyone is allowed to walk in off the street and sneak along the hallways and patient rooms during those times I was not there in the room with my Loved One.

It sounds like you are very tired. I hope you get some sleep and wake up in a more agreeable mood.
 
The hospital that our family has used for years is in a neighborhood that is quickly going to pieces. The daytime hours are fine, but they'll have issues once the sun goes down.

Dad was in not too long ago, and we (Mom, Sis, and I) overstayed the visiting hours. We were watching a baseball game in his private room. We hadn't realized that it was as late as it was.

A security guard comes in a politely introduces himself. He asks a few questions along with some small talk, and realizes that we're all immediate family of the patient. He then handed all of us stickers that allowed us unlimited access to the facility at the ER door, all night long. The hospital security office is conveniently located next to the ER door. Of course.

Apparently, he didn't see any of us as being a threat to hospital security.

We weren't asked for any official ID... but we did get questioned.
 
mrsilv04 said:
The hospital that our family has used for years is in a neighborhood that is quickly going to pieces. The daytime hours are fine, but they'll have issues once the sun goes down.

It must be those darn vampires.....
 
Access to the local 500+ bed hospital ER requires emptying pockets and going thru a metal detector similar to the airport security. Three armed uniformed police control the entrance. To leave the waiting room to visit my father in an ER area room required a scan of our drivers license. We were then given a sticker badge good for that day only. All this security is a "good" area of town.
 
This has not hit my wife's hospital yet near a so so city in MA.

They do have a decent police presence beyond good security.

Hope your mum feels better.
 
At a hospital here you hand over your ID that they copy then they give you a bar coded visitors
pass with your picture that they just took. The different wards doors are locked and your bar coded
pass will only unlock the door to the floor with the patient you are there to visit.

Metal detectors were only at the ER entrance.
 
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It's all B.S.

All they need to know is a name of who you will see and how you are related. Name does not match records or your story fishy then no entry, simple.

I.D. abuse is running rampant today. and honestly get rid of the metal detectors at the courthouse, make courts responsible for their actions and fear the public, whom they serve. Got a bunch of activist running rampant behind their benches. They would not do so if they feared the citizens. They are to read the Constitution and to Obey it.
 
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Hospitals have a lot of fine narcotics in stock that are a tempting target for the growing population of users.
That the drugs are normally secured pretty well is only a minor impediment to a desperate addict.
OTOH, like most facilities run by and staffed with people who aren't especially security conscious, there is always a back door left propped open by someone going out for a quick smoke or to get a breath of cool night air or to make unloading an incoming delivery easier.
The front door may have impressive security but there are many back doors that bypass it and the staff who do so learn quickly how to inactivate door open alerts as well as where the cameras can see.
It may be that the hospital that your mother is in has had a recent major theft of narcotics and has beefed up security in response to that, never mind that the thieves probably didn't enter through the front door.
Finally, if one has no more than the information on your DL, he can assemble a pretty comprehensive dossier of your life, including arrest records and credit history. All anyone needs is name, DOB and SS#. With that, everything else can be found online either cheaply or free.
 
I doubt that they are doing any more than just logging who is on the premises. You would be amazed at what segments of society that hospital staff deal with. Gang members, drug seeking patients, angry family members , patients in DTs/withdrawal, mentally unbalanced people receiving bad news about family members etc.

In the event of a lockdown, they just want to know who is on the premises, including staff members.
 
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Originally Posted By: spasm3
I doubt that they are doing any more than just logging who is on the premises. You would be amazed at what segments of society that hospital staff deal with. Gang members, drug seeking patients, angry family members , mentally unbalanced people receiving bad news about family members etc.

In the event of a lockdown, they just want to know who is on the premises, including staff members.


Well said spsasm3. Also victims of violence end up there. Then the ones that put them there go to the hospital to try and make sure they don't make it. There was a person who was hooked on drugs and owed lots of money to the dealers. So the druggie goes to the hospital complaining of all the pain he's in. The drug dealers go to the hospital to look for him. So all sorts of things are going on at the Hospital even in the nice areas.
 
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