Vicarious liability is the legal concept that hospital administrators may be held personally responsible for the acts of employees that they supervise, even though they may not have been present when the acts occurred. Hospital administrators are at risk in five distinct areas: negligent appointment, negligent retention, negligent assignment, negligent supervision, and negligent training. Furthermore, the administrator can incur criminal liability or, as happens more often, civil liability. The importance of adequate training for security and police personnel within the medical care setting is emphasized, and attention is focused on whether nonsecurity staff members such as physicians and nurses should also receive such training. The importance of the hospital administrator implementing a training needs assessment is emphasized, and the administrator is cautioned to pay attention to the role of training and to incorporate a well-developed security training program into an overall personnel system. Four references are cited.