fuquay resident's blog

gang activity - bjrh campus

Published Mar. 26, 2008

I contacted WakeMed, Harnett Health System, BJRH, and the Harnett County Commissioners on Dec 12 after a security incident at Betsy Johnson Regional Hospital where a BJRH employee was shot in the head and chest and almost a dozen vehicle break-ins. I received the following response from Deb Laughery at WakeMed and no response at all from Harnett Health Service or BJRH and the only response I received from the commissioners was from Gary House. "Thank you for your email inquiry regarding security at Betsy Johnson Regional Hospital. BJRH and WakeMed are committed to the safety and wellbeing of visitors and staff at the hospital and are working hard to ensure a safe environment.

While WakeMed provides overall management of the hospital, we are not involved in the daily operations. That is handled by a very capable
staff under the direction of the CEO Mr. Ken Bryan. As a result, there are many differences in the services provided.

Currently, US Security Associates provides security for the hospital campus and surrounding physician offices 24 hours a day, seven days a
week. The staff are trained, licensed and certified by the state of North Carolina. This level of service is consistent with community-based
hospitals across the state.

Mr. Bryan has, however, engaged WakeMed's Public Safety and Campus Police director to provide consulting services and recommendations as to what, if any, gaps exist and improvements that could be made.

If you have any further concerns, please feel free to contact Mr. Bryan's office directly."

This morning, Wednesday, March 26, 2008, at approximately 1:05 a.m., a security guard from Betsy Johnson Regional Hospital called for police assistance. The security guard stated that he had barricaded himself inside one of the buildings on the BJRH campus and could not exit, because he had been threatened by four to five black males wearing red, white, black and green hoodies.

According to the security guard, the individuals had been "terrorizing" the hospital all night.

Dunn PD officers responding were unable to locate anyone, though several of the officers stated they had observed several individuals fitting the description earlier in the night shift.

It was determined that this incident was "gang related."

Why does WakeMed have their own armed police force on all the rest of its campuses, but not Betsy Johnson Regional Hospital? This just doesn't make sense. It makes even less sense to know that these individuals had been "terrorizing" the hospital all night long and no one summoned assistance sooner.

Domestic shooting, numerous car break-ins, burglaries, assaults and now even the security personnel aren't safe. What is it going to take for WakeMed to realize that they have a problem at the hospital? Things are so bad there now that it requires four security personnel to monitor the premises.

It would seem that if Mr. Bryan has engaged WakeMed's Public Safety and Campus Police director to provide consulting services and recommendations as to what, if any, gaps exist and improvements that could be made, those recommendations were either not followed or were not enough to provide proper security at the hospital. Hopefully it won't take someone being murdered or the hospital being taken over by gang members to get security to the level that is needed.