The setup
The security requirement was formally codified in December months after council member Mackenzie Kelly first proposed the change. In a resolution she drafted this summer, she cited a fatal crash at St. David's North Austin Medical Center as an example of the types of incidents that could harm hospital patients, visitors and staff without features like security bollards in place.
“Hundreds of preventable and tragic incidents like this have happened across the country in the past decade, and certainly many more before that,” she said in a July statement. “Given the unique circumstances of emergency centers, from people rushing for help or impaired by prescribed or illicit drugs, these kinds of measures are common sense.”
The details
Going forward, Austin hospitals and clinics must include safety bollards or other barriers at all pedestrian entryways as they're built. The change only applies for new construction going forward; transportation department staffer Curtis Beaty said the policy isn't a "retrofit," although some existing hospitals already have security features in place.
City staff said the proposal received neutral to positive feedback from community members and hospital administrators while under public review this summer and fall.
St. David's HealthCare already made safety upgrades at its local hospitals and will stick to the new rules going forward.
"St. David’s HealthCare installed bollards at all of our hospitals prior to the Austin City Council approving the ordinance, and we will work with policymakers to ensure compliance with any new legal or regulatory requirement," they said in a statement.
In a statement, an Ascension Seton spokesperson said the hospital system will meet the new requirements in Austin.
"Ascension Seton works with policymakers on various issues regarding the health and safety of our employees, patients and their families. We will work with officials to ensure compliance with any new laws," a system spokesperson said.
One more thing
The new safety standard passed unanimously Dec. 12, following a request from council member Zo Qadri to delay the item for further consideration. He said the Planning Commission—which postponed its own decision on the item Dec. 10—needed more time to address unanswered questions about the policy and potentially broaden its requirements beyond medical centers before a final council vote.
During that commission's review, Beaty said the policy didn't end up including places like libraries and child care centers due to the specific direction in Kelly's resolution. Similar requirements could "easily" cover those kinds of locations in the future, he said.
Kelly said she'd initially kept the resolution focused on medical centers to avoid impacting other types of businesses in town and to garner support for a targeted solution. With her term ending in early January, she also said next year's new City Council could revise or expand the policy after its initial passage.
Quote of note
"If in the future [council members] feel that there is a need for a broadening of the scope of the ordinance that's before us today, that is a valiant effort, and I would encourage that while I'm watching from home on my couch eating popcorn," Kelly said. "But right now today, we have the ability to affect a very serious change to our hospitals and emergency rooms where there are individuals who experience medical crises, and I think that it would be an absolute travesty for us not to vote today in favor of this item and to postpone it and to kick it down the road further, where in the next 30 days or so when this is brought back up because of a lack of effort we could experience another horrible tragedy."
