NEGATIVE — MEDICAL — DISADVANTAGES 266
WE NEED OPEN SURVEILLANCE POLICY TO PROTECT RESIDENTS OF NURSING HOMES
25% OF NURSING HOMES ARE DEFICIENT ENOUGH TO KILL
USA TODAY, September 21, 1999, SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 18A TITLE: Nursing home videos could hasten sorely needed reforms // acs-EE2001
Last spring, Congress' General Accounting Office reported that of the nation's 17,000 homes, one-fourth "continue to be cited for deficiencies that either caused actual harm to residents or carried the potential for serious injury or death." A survey of 14 states released this year found that state and federal complaint procedures were largely inadequate, in some cases leaving patients at risk of continued abuse and neglect for months.
THERE ARE MANY ABUSIVE NURSING HOME SITUATIONS WHICH VICTIMIZE THE ELDERLY
USA TODAY, September 21, 1999, SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 18A TITLE: Nursing home videos could hasten sorely needed reforms // acs-EE2001
One video camera caught staffers telling a nursing home resident that she was being punished by God. Another caught a nursing home staffer throwing elderly women into their beds. Yet another caught staffers telling an incontinent resident that she would not get clean sheets if she kept pushing the call button.
Not every nursing home is a chamber of horrors. And anecdotes such as those above, supplied by a patient advocacy group, can be misleading. But enough nursing homes suffer problems that giving patients the right to install cameras in their rooms makes both intuitive and practical sense. A coalition of advocates for the elderly last week called for such federal legislation.
NURSING HOME CAMERAS WOULD PROTECT THE ELDERLY
Joanne Meyers, USA TODAY September 21, 1999, SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 18A TITLE: Cameras in nursing homes a good idea // acs-EE2001
Cameras in the room -- yes! And also in other locations, particularly the shower and the dining room. It is not an invasion of privacy to protect our fragile, often-senile elderly from the abuses that members of our family have seen and experienced.
Our elderly need compassionate care and protection from staff who handle them roughly or who let disorderly patients attack other patients.
NURSING HOME SURVAILLANCE CAMERAS WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA
Violette King, president, Nursing Home Monitors, Chicago Sun-Times January 19, 2000, SECTION: EDT; LETTERS; Pg. 34 TITLE: Nursing home safety enhanced by cameras // acs-EE2001
We have accepted and welcomed surveillance cameras in the day care setting; why is the nursing home setting any different? Let's not listen to arguments from bad operators that cameras will invade privacy. We should instead keep asking what it is that bad operators can be doing or not doing that they do not want exposed. The frail elderly have every right to this protection if they desire it, and good nursing home owners should encourage it.
GRANNY CAMS -- NURSING HOME CAMERAS -- CAN PROTECT THE ELDERLY
USA TODAY, September 21, 1999, SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 18A TITLE: Nursing home videos could hasten sorely needed reforms // acs-EE2001
Vulnerable patients need all of the security they can get -- "granny-cams" included. Nervous parents use cameras to monitor the treatment of their children by nannies and day care workers. Why shouldn't nervous children likewise be able to monitor the treatment of their parents by nursing home workers?
NURSING HOME CAMERAS WOULD LEAD TO MORE LAWSUITS, BUT THAT WOULD END ABUSIVE PRACTICES
NUSING HOME CMERASUSA TODAY, September 21, 1999, SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 18A TITLE: Nursing home videos could hasten sorely needed reforms // acs-EE2001
No doubt the cameras would provoke more lawsuits. But that's the point: to empower victims and give the industry an incentive to clean itself up. The way to shut down lawyers is to stop abuses, not stifle plaintiffs.
NURSING HOME CAMERAS PROTECT THE HOMES AGAINST FALSE CLAIMS
USA TODAY, September 21, 1999, SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 18A TITLE: Nursing home videos could hasten sorely needed reforms // acs-EE2001
Lastly, workers and their employers will be informed about the cameras, and the thoughtful among them might even welcome them as protection against false claims. As to privacy: If the patient and the patient's family want the cameras, what's the problem? There are plenty of "Orwellian bureaucracies" in the world today. Among them: nursing homes that refuse to allow their residents to monitor and document their own treatment.