Vidant's Story: An Unlikely Partnership in Hospital Safety
"We learned about ShotSpotter when we were approached by the Chief of Police who was very interested in the technology and potential impact it could have on the community. The company’s track record resonated with our team as we were looking for a solution to address gun violence in a neighborhood that has been a hot spot for violence next to our hospital.
At Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, we serve 1.4 million people. Our penetrating trauma rate approximates 15 percent which is 3 times what it should be. If you went into urban Philadelphia or Washington D.C. those trauma centers have a penetrating rate of 20 or 25 percent so we're actually closer to an urban gunshot rate. We had to come up with a solution for this.
Our Solution
As part of our larger community benefit initiatives the Vidant Health Foundation agreed to partner with the Greenville Police Department to co-fund the technology. We recently went live in February 2019. ShotSpotter is part of our comprehensive approach for dealing with firearm violence – which is an enormous public health problem. ShotSpotter improves police response time, overall awareness to gun crime, enhances hospital staff safety and can dramatically impact the number of gunshot wound victims we treat."
