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Cooper University Hospital in Camden, NJ, increased security during the time it treated Governor Jon S. Corzine while he recuperated from injuries suffered in a serious car crash in April.

Cooper increased its own security force and state troopers helped during the governor's hospital stay, reported The Trentonian. Unmarked state police cars were stationed in front of the hospital's front door and the governor's security details became fixtures inside the facility.

News reporters took up residence in the hospital's lobby almost immediately after Corzine arrived at Cooper by helicopter after his SUV crashed on the Garden State Parkway on April 12. Hospital officials have not tallied the cost of the extra security or other expenses created by the governor's stay, the newspaper said.

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Police arrested a 29-year-old man after he allegedly drove his car into the doors of the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario on May 7, reported CBC News. The man also is accused of firing a gun inside a hotel next door to the hospital.

Police said no one was hurt in the incident. Police dispatched more than 24 officers to the scene after receiving a call just before 3 a.m. that a vehicle had crashed into the hospital's front entrance.

A hosptial spokeswoman told the news service that an armed man was unable to enter the locked hospital, so he went to the nearby not-for-profit hotel for families of out-of-town paitents. He managed to get in through the side door.

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Although safety committee members would never want to test their storm strategy that way, the staff of Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus, GA, learned firsthand how its disaster plan worked after a tornado hit the facility March 1.

All of the patients and employees survived, says Susie Fussell, the hospital's vice president of nursing, who also is in charge of risk management. Everyone involved remained remarkably calm and orderly during the evacuation of the hospital, including patients' families, who stayed in their places and waited for instructions despite the chaos and severe building damage.

To learn more about the lessons learned in this disaster situation, go to www.hcpro.com/ppv-70216.html. The cost is $10. Briefings on Hospital Safety subscribers received this story with their subscriptions.

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