24/7 Video Cameras in ICU rooms

[umcRN]

So I have a question for ya'll.

I work in a large pedi cardiac ICU. Being cards a majority of our patients are newborn-toddler however we also have a population of 20-40 year olds (those hypoplasts just keep on living now!). We are soon to be moving into a brand new, technology overloaded unit One thing that every room will have is a video camera pointed directly at the patient bed. The "purpose" of the cameras is supposed to be able to go back and review events leading to an Event ie code, rapid deploy to ECMO, etc. Concern is where these camera's are just going to be another way to place blame on why something happened, aka the nurse. I see the benefits in reviewing these events to see where we can improve in our processes but something tells me it won't just be for that.

So, wondering if any other units anywhere use a system like this...what you like/dislike about it. Also how would you, the adult patient, feel being videotaped the entirety of your ICU stay whether you were an up and about "walkie talkie" or sedated post op?

I'm interested to hear your thoughts!

[J.R.theR.N2b]

my question deals with how each patient is informed that there will be a camera watching them. in almost all instances this is inserted as an aside in the consent form which, when signed by the patient, legalizes the process. i feel that each patient should be specifically told of the possibility of being on camera, after which their consent should be in writing and affixed to the medical record. if the patient refuses, how does this affect his care, other than the abscense of the camera surveillance? is the patient told how to make sure the cameras are indeed turned off? finally i feel that the use of these cameras constitute a serious breach of patient privacy unless IMFORMED consent is obtained from the patient, and that this is way too important an issue to be relegated to an aside in fine print on the consent form. i realize the importance of all the information that these cameras can yield, and how much easier it is on the staff to obtain, but patient knowledge of and consent to the use of these cameras should and must trump whatever advantages these may give the staff. after all is said and done, the patient is the legal master of what is done to them.

[umcRN, BSN, RN]

my question deals with how each patient is informed that there will be a camera watching them. in almost all instances this is inserted as an aside in the consent form which, when signed by the patient, legalizes the process. i feel that each patient should be specifically told of the possibility of being on camera, after which their consent should be in writing and affixed to the medical record. if the patient refuses, how does this affect his care, other than the abscense of the camera surveillance? is the patient told how to make sure the cameras are indeed turned off? finally i feel that the use of these cameras constitute a serious breach of patient privacy unless IMFORMED consent is obtained from the patient, and that this is way too important an issue to be relegated to an aside in fine print on the consent form. i realize the importance of all the information that these cameras can yield, and how much easier it is on the staff to obtain, but patient knowledge of and consent to the use of these cameras should and must trump whatever advantages these may give the staff. after all is said and done, the patient is the legal master of what is done to them.

Good point. I work in peds though so...no we don't really get any kind of consent, and our cameras are almost useless as the only thing you can see is the patient and SOMETIMES the monitor (which makes reviewing a code difficult), for instance in a code you can't see what the crowd is doing or see if the team was working well together. All you can see is the patient, the person bagging and the one doing chest compressions.

In reply to another poster our cameras dont have a central "viewing" screen. And I don't even know how to access the videos, they are used for codes only (and in one instance where we had a crib malfunction and a baby fell out...he was ok!) and I think only the medical directors and leadership staff have access to them.