Debate Over Use of Video Cameras in Nursing Home Residents Rooms

Margaret Embry

Contributor

0 CommentsPrint ArticleSubscribe

With the number of nursing home abuse claims so high, Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater believes that families should be allowed to install video cameras in the rooms of state nursing home residents.

In the May 1, 2009 edition of Tulsa World, Prater was quoted during a hearing on nursing homes at the state Capitol as saying,

If they're aboveboard and fully staffed and take care of the residents, what do they have to hide? I would think they would offer that option to the residents.

Executive Director of the Oklahoma Association of Health Care Providers, Becky Moore, explained that there are cameras in the common areas of most nursing homes. While there is no law against putting cameras in residents' rooms, many residents are hesitant to have the cameras installed. She states that this hesitation is due to the fact that most personal care takes place at bedside and many residents do not want their personal care filmed.

Moore went on to say that she believes having cameras in residents' rooms would be an issue for providers because a camera "in more cases than not is used to sue a nursing facility."