NEWS RELEASES

Over the past week, our hearts have been heavy with grief and sadness in the wake of the tragic shooting that occurred at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center. 

Our thoughts and our hearts have been focused on Security Officer Bobby Smallwood and his loved ones and all those affected by this devastating event. Today at 11:06 a.m., we gathered across the Legacy Health community for a moment of silence to grieve together, support each other and honor our memory of Bobby and his dedication to protecting others. 

The emotional toll of this shooting continues to ripple across our 14,000 Legacy employees and into the communities we serve. 

Because we value our relationships with our communities, it’s important that we keep you informed about how Legacy is responding to this tragic event and how these changes might impact you.

Over the last several days, Legacy’s senior leaders have worked closely with our Safety & Security team and colleagues across our organization to develop a comprehensive plan to further bolster Legacy’s already strong safety policies and practices.

This team has been careful, thoughtful and collaborative in considering how new measures may affect our people, our patients and our communities. They have also developed a systemwide approach for our eight hospitals while leaving room for each hospital to create unique solutions that best serve their facilities and their communities. 

With over 100 locations, this team will develop additional plans to ensure safety across all Legacy facilities. 
 
These are the top three actions we will take immediately: 

We will install metal detectors with bag search at every Legacy hospital. All patients and visitors will enter our hospitals through controlled access points with metal detection and bag search. Certain hospitals will see metal detectors installed next week on Monday. Other hospitals will see metal detectors soon.

We will install bullet-slow film on the hospital main entrances and emergency departments and on glass in internal entrances.

We have equipped our lead security officers with Tasers and will expand the use of Tasers to all security officers who have completed training and certification.

We have begun to develop a second phase of actions, and that work will continue over the next several months. This includes assessing the safety needs at our medical office buildings and our community-based clinics and reviewing locations that may need additional safety measures, including badge access controls, panic alarms and security cameras. 

We are in active conversations with team members across Legacy to ensure our plan reflects the safety concerns that are voiced and felt by many members of the broader healthcare workforce in the Northwest and across the country. 

Thank you for your patience and support as we harness our grief into action. We are also grateful for your outpouring of support, empathy and compassion for our Good Samaritan team, our security officers, our caregivers across all sites and for our beloved Security Officer Bobby Smallwood.

With deep and immense gratitude to our people, our patients and our communities, 
 
Kathryn Correia 
President and CEO 

This message was posted on July 29, 2023