PHOTOGRAPHS with cellphones

[embarrasingfield]

Anyone else sick of being blind-sided with having your photo taken by a family members cell-phone?

I mean its all so nice and good that they like me and think I am cute. But how does that give them the right to snap my photo on the job?

And what is wrong with people who think this is a normal thing to do in a hospital setting?

:argue:

[nurseby07]

Wound pictures are going to become a requirement as the Medicare regulations about hospital acquired wounds come in to place. Photo documentation of a wound on admission should be a standard in all hospitals..and will be. Without being able to document an exisiting wound and it's presence on admission, the hospital stands the chance of "owning" that wound later on in the admission.

I know that policy, as a home health nurse I carry a camera to document wounds. She would take pictures with her cell phone to save and show people for fun. No joke, we had a pt with some strain of mrsa which had eaten away her scalp and was necrotizing her brain, which was open for all to see who gave her care. This nurse took a pic and would tell the story to new nurses, or float nurses always followed with, "Wait! I have a pic" and whip out her cell phone. It wasn't for Medicare it was for fun.

[shelly304]

Not a nurse story ...At our local Wal*Mart Customers were goofing off in line at the check-out taking pics of each other. Only they weren't taking pics of the friend in front of them, they were taking pics of the debit cards being swiped and the checks being presented. They were caught (finally after about 3 months) by the surveillance cams overhead and the items they were buying on the internet!

Oh, technology is a wonderful thing!

[AuntieRN]

My hospital has a written policy regarding picture taking. And believe it or not they strictly enforce it. Noone is allowed to be photographed by anyone even family without written consent. And we have a special consent form for it. Now as for staff it is strictly prohibited for a family member to photograph or video tape staff doing anything. Even their voice and they will confiscate the materials. I found this out first hand one weekend with a problem family. The supvisor called our attorney at home. Who in turned called security to confiscate the video tape. Family was not happy.

[Anxious Patient]

We do this as a matter of routine. When a patient comes in with wounds, the only way to protect the facility (and the medicare reimbursement!) is to have proof that the wound was pre- hospital admission

.

Wound pictures are going to become a requirement as the Medicare regulations about hospital acquired wounds come in to place. Photo documentation of a wound on admission should be a standard in all hospitals..and will be. Without being able to document an exisiting wound and it's presence on admission, the hospital stands the chance of "owning" that wound later on in the admission.

Just curious, if these wound photos were used as evidence in litigation, wouldn't the patient's face have to show too? Otherwise how can a photo of just a wound be proof that it comes from a specific patient. Does consent have to be given with or without the patient's face in this situation?

[softstorms]

This is my pet-peeve.....We have a sign that says "NO CELL PHONES" on our front door. We have a policy that says staff can not have cell-phones on the unit. So we have all that here and more. I get family members standing at my desk talking to someone and looking at me!!!!!!!I get staff talking in hallways (looking like they are talking to themselfs) I get family members handing me a cell phone and saying "my sister has a question?" I have staff members taking pix of other staff members that "sleep" on night shift and keep them as a control issue. We have a policy that says you have to have written permission to take a pix of a pt. When did owning a cell phone make you able to disreguard someone elses space? I see people talking to themselves all the time in hallways. At one time that would have looked like an institution for the insane, now it is just the cell phone LOL.