Administrative

• Administrative security officers fulfill many of the same duties as traditional administrative assistants and clerks. Their duties include answering phone calls, filing patient reports, greeting visitors and fielding questions. These duties are performed in uniform, and officers may be called upon to contact the police or deal with other high-stress situations such as evacuations when needed.
  
  

Patrolling

• The majority of security officers in the health care industry are patrolling officers. These officers' duties consist of continuously roaming the area and checking for anything out of the ordinary, such as suspicious persons, burnt-out lights or lost visitors and patients. These duties are oftentimes combined with administrative work, especially in hospitals during off hours such as nights and holidays.
  
  

Patient Contact

• Patient contact security officers are trained to handle physical confrontations and are most commonly placed in settings such as psychiatric wards and emergency rooms.They are kept close at hand and may deal with both violent and nonviolent patients. They're generally assigned to one area of any given hospital or other health care facility, and it is extremely rare for patient contact officers to take on patrolling and administrative duties.