Patients taking selfies in clinical areas

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Nov 8, 2015

Found this article while perusing internet: Secret Video: Mercy guard threatened photo-taking mom

Mandi Wilson, who says her 7-year-old son is losing his hearing, was detained by Mercy and questioned after she took him to an audiologist and tried to take a picture to post on a social media site.
Wilson, who describes herself as single mom who works three different jobs, wrote on her Facebook page that she had taken her son to an audiologist at Mercy to get his hearing tested. Wilson wrote she tried to take a photo "but his audiologist waved her hands in my face and in front of the camera and began freaking out on me."
Wilson was taken to an office where she was questioned by a security guard. The video of the incident, which she later posted on YouTube, records him asking for her phone to verify that the pictures she took had been deleted. The video, which Wilson took secretly, doesn't show faces but includes audio.
Asked about Wilson's experience, a spokeswoman for Mercy explained the system's policy is under review.
"The idea is not to prohibit patients from capturing personal memories," said Mercy spokeswoman Sonya Kullmann. "However, we want to ensure that we protect everyone's right to privacy. That includes other patients, visitors, co-workers and providers who may not want to appear in someone else's photograph, video or recording."

My employer has similar policy: no taking pictures on hospital property without signed release. Security will ask offenders to check camera's/cellphones to confirm pics deleted.

calivianya, BSN, RN · Nov 12, 2015

It's against policy for pictures to be taken at all in my hospital. Even by the patients, of themselves, in their own hospital rooms with nobody else present. I think it's less about those pictures that are relatively innocent (as in, no risk of exposing anyone else's info) and more about the people taking selfies in the ED waiting room with a ton of people around. Trying to explain why one person's selfie is okay but another person's selfie is not gets tricky. Policy wise, it's easier just to ban pictures altogether.

MunoRN, RN · Nov 14, 2015

Found this article while perusing internet: Secret Video: Mercy guard threatened photo-taking mom
My employer has similar policy: no taking pictures on hospital property without signed release. Security will ask offenders to check camera's/cellphones to confirm pics deleted.

This is where staff need to be very careful and I've known of security staff who faced criminal charges for falsely believing they had the right to require a visitor to give them their phone to delete pictures. Where staff potentially broke the law was suggesting to the women that she was being detained.

Staff can ask a patient or visitor to not take pictures policy or to delete photos they have taken but there is no legal basis for enforcing this, all staff can do is to trespass someone from the property for not following facility policy since no laws were broken.

NurseGirl525, ASN, RN · Nov 18, 2015

I find this interesting because this is the problem with our society today more than a bunch of kids taking selfies of themselves with duck faces. Yes, they look stupid, but who cares? Really. The problem is somebody doesn't like what other people are doing so they want to enforce their beliefs on everybody. Do you guys who think this should be a policy realize we live in the USA. This country was founded on people fleeing another country because one guy wanted to impose his religious beliefs on everyone and made laws about it. Please explain to me what is the difference here? You want to make a policy to enforce your beliefs that you think selfies are dumb and that duck lips look stupid.

I know back in the 80s I looked pretty dumb a lot. The make-up back then!!! The hair!!! We looked stupid, like duck lips do. We just didn't have the technology to document it. I'm pretty sure we would of if we would have had it. Teenagers, kids in their twenties, are very self-involved people. Always have been. It's not going to change. You are not going to change that.

If a patient is taking pics of other patients without their consent or other people, then yes, that can be an issue. But it's not a HIPAA violation. They are not health care workers. HIPAA applies to those of us in the health care field. It's not some national law.

You can't force people to think like you or feel the same way as you. It's the great thing about humanity. We are all unique individuals. If you guys want to control what other people do or think everyone should follow one way of thought, move to North Korea or China where people have no rights. One guy decides what is right for everyone. The men all have the same hair cut, no REAL internet, limits on reproduction, everybody makes the same amount of money, everybody gets the same amount of food.

Think about what you are advocating for here. Then think about how in reality, people taking selfies is such a small thing. I take selfies with my son. I want him to look back some day and remember our life together and what kind of mom I am to him. All the fun we had. If I took a selfie of the two of us before he had surgery one time, so what? It's my family and I can take pics whenever I want to. Maybe it's a special moment with me and him because he's nervous. Maybe I want to show him how silly he is after the anesthesia. So what? That's between us. Not for some person to look at and say, you shouldn't do that, I'm going to institute a policy about that. It seems so petty to me.

kakamegamama · Nov 19, 2015

When I had my accident last winter I had the residents in the ER take photos of my injury. I'd been transported to a regional trauma center for emergency surgery. I did post on Facebook before I went to surgery. I was far away from friends and family, and the support and prayers I received were so comforting.
Social media isn't all narcissistic nonsense, it is a good way to connect with people in our lives.

Yep, it sure is. Sometimes, it's the only way I know what's going on in the lives of my kids, 1 who lives in Africa, the others who live halfway around the world from where I live now!

kakamegamama · Nov 19, 2015

I am struck by the number of people who would like to see this practice banned (or similar) because they don't like it. That seems a bit ego centric to me.
Clearly, if the photo does not include images of other patients or staff without their permission it is nothing we should waste our time on. If it is not violating the rights of another it is okay, whether or not you personally approve, unless it violates some rule of the facility or unit. Even then, I wonder how such a rule would survive a legal challenge. We are a country of personal freedoms, after all.
There are a few people in my FB feed who post selfies of them looking adorable nearly everyday. Mostly they are women and all of them are single.
That is anecdotal, for sure, but in my circle of contacts the selfie addicted are known to be experiencing some insecurity secondary to love, work, or similar. I see the selfie as a somewhat effective tool in seeking and recieving positive messaging and reinforcement from people who know these individuals. Then there are those who take it to a level where you begin to wonder about their mental health BECAUSE of the selfie obsession.
My spouse takes selfies when we travel to the Alaskan wilderness. Those are the beautiful scenary images with her face included at the request of friends and family. She often does a 360 film with her in the middle spinning around like a top while the mountains fly by in the background making me feel slightly dizzy and ill after watching. Friends are particularly fond of those.

I'm impressed with your wife's ability to spin around taking 360 shots......I'm dizzy just reading about it!

freyarn · Dec 2, 2015

I work CVICU. I had a brain dead young woman on the ventilator that we terminally extubated and the family (without my knowledge) had taken selfies with her corpse. I had no idea what they were doing because I was giving them time to grieve! Well, they posted it allllll over Facebook, another nurse is friends with a friend of the patient, and there were these selfies with her dead body... Why? I have no idea, but I think if you enter the ICU, leave the phone off or at the door.

la_chica_suerte85, BSN, RN · Dec 5, 2015

I am certain the day will come when someone decides to share a birthing lady partsl shot. Why not?

That day came last year during fall quarter. As a student in L&D, my first vag birth patient asked me to do this for her. The doc said, "Are you kidding?" :no:

Karou · Dec 9, 2015

That day came last year during fall quarter. As a student in L&D, my first vag birth patient asked me to do this for her. The doc said, "Are you kidding?"

I have no words! People amaze me.

haunani, BSN, RN · Dec 14, 2015

If they aren't catching other patients in the background or such, I don't see the problem with it. I may not like it personally, but it doesn't mean they shouldn't be allowed to do so.

My son (3yo) had surgery a couple weeks ago and yes, we were taking pictures of him pre-op and in the pediatric holding area. We were careful to not get any caregiver identities or other patients in any of the pictures (curtains were pulled in the pre-op area). It wasn't a violation of anyone's HIPAA and my son laughs when he sees his pictures of him in his "special clothes".

Not_A_Hat_Person, RN · Dec 19, 2015

I don't understand the hostility toward selfies. Self-portraits are as old as art. A cave in Argentina is decorated with 8,000-year-old handprints and hunting scenes. There are probably some selfies of Og and his mastadon in a cave somewhere.

When I was an ER volunteer, EMS brought in a young man with a very large nail through his foot. Camera phones were new then, and he had his out, trying to get some photos of his injured foot for his blog. He even asked a nurse to take a few pictures; she refused.

As long as the photos don't show any staff or other patients, I have no problem with patient selfies. Their camera, their injury, their decision.

applesxoranges, BSN, RN · Dec 19, 2015

I've taken pictures of patients with their cellphones. As long as it is not me, whatever. It was back in the day for Myspace. It was pretty cool because he looked all bloody but it was from a small cut on his ear.