New Ohio law would let families put cameras in nursing home rooms

[Nursingstudent___]

https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/ohio/ohio-bill-would-allow-families-to-place-cameras-in-rooms-of-elder-care-patients/95-b3c950eb-8b44-433c-a963-856761865991?fbclid=IwAR2ZNhc4oynwA1NHzwjsC4qP5hWXrbZNlVyctY_hFe3CeAE9nw2KT7GEpUE

What do you think of this law that would allow families to place cameras in the rooms of elderly patients. I'm pretty against it mostly because we do a lot of cares in the patient's rooms and I think it violates the privacy of the patient. I mean does anyone want to see their demented parents throw their feces across the room because they were confused? Doesn't the patient have the right to have privacy and dignity when they have dementia or are going through delirium. I also worry about OTHER resident's privacy. Many times we have one resident go into another resident's room to hang out and talk or do whatever. Does that random resident have the right to be recorded.

I can also see the flip side in concerns about abuse. I'm wondering what you all think about this new bill?

[Steve Piskor]

The camera is also there to protect residents from other residents, one person was worried about her loved one being a wanderer, these are the ones the camera will protect against, no other resident should be in another residents room without permission. There have been many cases and rape from resident to resident and the people who put cameras in are protected from everyone, they have that right to be treated with dignity and respect and free from abuse, and that is the law.

[Nursingstudent___]

1 hour ago, Steve Piskor said:

This is the Ohio Law I submitted named after my mother Esther who was brutally abused in a nursing. The person that said “do you want to see throwing feces around”. No we want to stop 80 year old women from being raped, we want to stop aides abusing the elderly , and we want to stop nurses who don’t care what happens, even abusing them. This law allows the resident and or family to chose if they want to put in a camera. The only one who will view the videos is the person who puts it in, POA or legal guardian, no one else is allowed to see the videos not even the nursing home, they are also not allowed to tamper, block, move, shut off, refuse or retaliate, it will be against the law. The ones that are against this is the abusers. If your doing your job, you have nothing to worry, but if you are abusing, you go to prison. Nursing homes have hidden behind this fake privacy long enough. The only ones who have the right to privacy is the resident, no one else per the Residents Bill of Rights law 1987. Roommates who don’t want the camera are protected under Esther’s Law.

I'm sorry to hear about your mother, but what do you do during personal cares? I mean if the aides can't turn it off during personal cares I do think it is a privacy concern. Have you worked with the elderly? Personal cares are personal and I wouldn't want to see my loved ones to see me during my personal cares when if I had dementia.

I find it pretty offensive that you would insinuate that people who find issue with this bill are abusing their residents. I've never abused my residents. I've been beaten to a bloody pulp by residents, bitten, punched, ect. But I would never dream of hurting them. I love my residents and care about their privacy, and their rights. I've seen emotionally abusive family members who could take advantage of this.

I can also see the benefits of this of course, and again I'm so sorry to hear about your mother. But calling me abusive because I find some problems with this bill is extremely offensive.

[Nursingstudent___]

1 hour ago, Steve Piskor said:

The camera is also there to protect residents from other residents, one person was worried about her loved one being a wanderer, these are the ones the camera will protect against, no other resident should be in another residents room without permission. There have been many cases and rape from resident to resident and the people who put cameras in are protected from everyone, they have that right to be treated with dignity and respect and free from abuse, and that is the law.

Ok, but what about residents who are friends with each other. Should the residents just be stuck in their rooms alone, or should they be allowed to have friends. Because I do have resident X who is friends with resident Y and resident Y has their room recorded so resident X shares private medical information with their friend not knowing they're being recorded now the POA has information to that private medical information.

[Tanacious, MSN, RN, APRN, NP]

That's a hard road to go down. All the horror stories we see and read about I can understand why families would want this. I don't agree, but maybe cameras in the rooms that are monitored in a central location like telemetry does. Still a fine road!

[Steve Piskor]

The harder road to go down is having your mother abused and raped, and you want to say protecting these elderly people who can’t protect their self should just be ignored and kept hidden like it has been, these days of elder abuse is coming to and end, the camera laws are not the only new nursing home reform laws coming.

[Steve Piskor]

Where did you get this information from. Again the only one who has the say so about privacy is the resident, and this is the law and abuse happens when direct care is given and you want to shut the cameras off while your giving direct care, that defeats the purpose of this law , and for your information, this is not the first law in the first state, at least 10 states already have some form of this law if not the same law, and this same law is pending in at least another 10 state’s , this epidemic of abuse your trying to say does not happen is not reality, look at the reports because everyone else is and do your job with care or go to prison.

[Tanacious, MSN, RN, APRN, NP]

10 minutes ago, Steve Piskor said:

The harder road to go down is having your mother abused and raped, and you want to say protecting these elderly people who can’t protect their self should just be ignored and kept hidden like it has been, these days of elder abuse is coming to and end, the camera laws are not the only new nursing home reform laws coming.

Yeah, that is a problem that should never happen. We have to find a way to protect our elderly. It is sad that we have people that find this acceptable to do to someone.

[Nursingstudent___]

31 minutes ago, Steve Piskor said:

Where did you get this information from. Again the only one who has the say so about privacy is the resident, and this is the law and abuse happens when direct care is given and you want to shut the cameras off while your giving direct care, that defeats the purpose of this law , and for your information, this is not the first law in the first state, at least 10 states already have some form of this law if not the same law, and this same law is pending in at least another 10 state’s , this epidemic of abuse your trying to say does not happen is not reality, look at the reports because everyone else is and do your job with care or go to prison.

I know it happens I reported an aide for abuse when I saw her pick up a resident and throw her onto the bed. I just don't think this is the only answer. We should be paying CNA's more, having safer staffing ratios, and make it harder to become a CNA because honestly to many uneducated people are in this profession. I think that would make a bigger difference. I'm also not against cameras in rooms as long as they can be turned off during personal cares because the elderly deserve the dignity of not having their loved one clean up their BM.

I watched the video of your mother and it put a pit in my stomach. I can't believe their were multiple aides that were so cruel, but we need systematic changes rather than this.

35 minutes ago, Tanacious said:

Yeah, that is a problem that should never happen. We have to find a way to protect our elderly. It is sad that we have people that find this acceptable to do to someone.

It's sad that people go into this profession knowing they should be helping the elderly than doing something like this.

[Waiting for Retirement]

18 hours ago, Steve Piskor said:

The harder road to go down is having your mother abused and raped, and you want to say protecting these elderly people who can’t protect their self should just be ignored and kept hidden like it has been, these days of elder abuse is coming to and end, the camera laws are not the only new nursing home reform laws coming.

Hi Steve, would first like to say I am so sorry your mother experienced this horror and your family's suffering is obviously immense. I can't even imagine how I'd feel---or more accurately I CAN imagine how I'd feel and it kills me.

I do want to say, too, that the part of your quote that I bolded is not what anyone here has said at all, not even suggested in the least. Of course we want vulnerable people to be protected! The cause for concern for the new law about cameras is not because nurses are seeking ways to abuse your loved ones without anyone finding out. The cause for concern is about the very personal care that in order to be done with dignity and respect would leave camera views out of the equation. I no longer do this kind of work but I can vividly recall how very exposed a patient is when a messy cleaning must take place. Done correctly it minimizes what is exposed and for how long. A good caregiver knows how to do it respectfully and carefully. But no matter what, if a camera is placed to view the bed where these cares take place there is NO possibility of protecting that vulnerable patient's most personal private moments.

Again let me say how very sorry I am that all this happened to you and your family. I don't say that I am concerned about having cameras in the room because I in any way am OK with patients being abused, it's because for so many years I have followed the concept of providing for the utmost dignity being the rule.

[Asystole RN]

On 12/27/2019 at 8:20 AM, Waiting for Retirement said:

I believe there is a significant difference between police wearing body cams when approaching someone and there is ZERO expectation of privacy, and a patient who is having a bowel movement cleaned on camera for the family's viewing.

We pull curtains and close doors to protect privacy of patients. I also very much support the rights of patients but in this case I believe it is the patient's rights that are being violated here.

You are viewing the legally appointed decision maker as some kind of odd 3rd party. However the legally decision maker was decided, they are now the primary patient's advocate and allowed full access to the patient unless otherwise stipulated in the contract. You want to protect the patient from their guardian when in reality the guardian is trying to protect the patient from you.

[Asystole RN]

19 hours ago, Tanacious said:

That's a hard road to go down. All the horror stories we see and read about I can understand why families would want this. I don't agree, but maybe cameras in the rooms that are monitored in a central location like telemetry does. Still a fine road!

The resident's room is their room like your house is your domain and my house is my domain. They, and their legally appointed guardian, should be allowed to do whatever they want within their room.

Residents are not prisoners, not for us to decide.

[Steve Piskor]

We must stop protecting everyone and stop using every excuse to not protect the elderly. All of you talk about privacy and not one of you offer a way to stop this epidemic of abuse and rape of the most vulnerable dementia Alzheimers residents. I placed a hidden camera in my mother’s room and caught 8 aides involved in her abuse. One went to prison for 10 1/2 years, one went to jail for six months, three were fired, and three were disciplined. This was from a five star nursing home the is connected to the number one emergency room in the entire northeast Ohio. These aides and nurses belonged to a union and were paid well, there was no understaffing (which is the biggest excuse for abuse) no overworking. My mother was in a different nursing home when under a doctors order, an aide didn’t put her seat belt on and she fell out of the chair flat on her face and shattering her nose, in intensive care for a week after surgery. The next nursing home the Ohio attorney general placed a hidden camera in her room and didn’t catch anything. Later I was told they new the camera was there. So I placed a hidden camera in her room and caught some of the worst neglect aides and nurses can do, one aide hiding in her room sleeping, a group of 5 aides gathering in her room for over an hour at dinner time while one aide was supposed to be feeding get, one person lift from chair to bed and back no hoyer lift . Aides on their phones for hours at a time, one aide leaves her up in the hoyer lift and continues on her phone looks like she was buying something using her credit card. I gave the video to the nursing home and told them to take care of this problem or I will. They fired 7 aides, the nurse quite , the nursing supervisor was fired and a new administrator showed up. I still have all this on video and I posted a short video on YouTube look for Esther Piskor being neglected. After that the poor care still went on and I have many pictures. I filed a substantiated report with the DOH on the poor quality of the food. After finding her slumped over in her chair I told all of them how could all of you walk by this many times and not put her in bed. The administrator banned me for five days and I moved her out in two days to find out she was slumped over because she was sick. The new nursing home called an ambulance and she was in a hospital for two weeks going back to the new nursing home under hospice. Hospice placed a faulty air mattress under her bed and it broke and she fell out of bed badly cutting her legs and knees and bruises to the face. She died two weeks later. The entire 10 years she was in nursing homes I could not keep here free from abuse and to be treated with dignity and respect and the only way I found out about the abuse was with a camera. So don’t tell me about this big huge concern you have for their family member seeing their naked body. These cameras are going in and they are not mandatory and if you don’t want the protection of the camera, very simple, don’t put one in, but the rest of us has had enough of the abuse of the elderly and we are going to put a stop to it any way we can.
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