Director of the Year Finalist Chris Cromer says providing a career path will keep officers happy and reduce attrition.Poor officer morale in a hospital security department can be damaging to not only the department in the form of public safety staff attrition, but also to the healthcare facility as a whole in the form of customer dissatisfaction and complaints.

The security officer’s job is tough. Having to constantly deal with patients and visitors who are under an incredible amount of stress, hospital public safety officers often don’t see positive results from all of their hard work, which contributes to the potential for poor morale.

However, Chris Cromer, who is the director of security services for the Alamance Regional Medical Center as well as one of this year’s director of the year finalists, believes the biggest obstacle to improving and maintaining officer morale often is the lack of a career path.