After a man shot a doctor in a Baltimore hospital on Thursday, many are questioning security at medical centers and if that kind of violence could happen in the Grand Valley.

Local hospitals tell us the short answer is yes.

"We're highly conscious of security here at the Veterans Medical Center, and we're always looking for ways to improve it," said Paul Sweeney with the Grand Junction V.A. Hospital.

He knows hindsight is 20/20. But, Thursday's shooting at the John Hopkins Memorial Hospital is making waves across the medical community.

"You get a wide variety of people coming into your emergency room," Sweeney said of potential risks. "Some of them are there for trauma and others have psychological issues to go with that."

Because of the uncertainty of who will come through that door next, the V.A. Hospital makes security a high priority. In fact, just last weekend, they had somewhat of a scare when a suspect running from police ran right through their campus putting the hospital on lockdown.

"You just follow your procedures. They're established and they're effective," Sweeney added.

Grand Junction's St. Mary's Hospital has the same philosophy on security.

In a statement to KJCT News 8, a representative for the hospital tells us new security cameras and badge access were recently added to the St. Mary's with the new tower, 'The Century Project.'

The statement also said the hospital is 'constantly assessing our security level.'

But, hospital patients and visitors, in general, say they're not really seeing a whole lot in place.

"No one even asked us our names or anything," said Tyler Smith when talking about a hospital visit in Houston last week.

Despite what looked to be a lack in security, Smith says he feels safe at a hospital. And while he thinks the events at John Hopkins are unfortunate, right now he doesn't see the need for more security.

"Unless all these things become more pronounced and often, I don't think we should put these security measures in place," he said.

Neither hospital would speak in detail about their security measures other than saying they have guards on the clock 24 hours a day. But both did say they have staff that are actively involved in disaster and fire-arm drills every year.

Community Hospital in Grand Junction provided brief comment off-camera. Their representative told us they also have 24-hour security.