Earlier this month we told you how hidden surveillance cameras installed at Medford Multicare Center for Living in Suffolk, New York gave the attorney general’s office evidence enough to charge at least four nursing home employees with criminal neglect.

New York leads the nation in using hidden video surveillance to investigate whether there is abuse in its nursing homes. At least 26 of the nursing home employees in New York have been convicted based on hidden video recordings.

The hidden cameras are installed in residents’ rooms with prior permission of family or legal representatives and without the knowledge of the nursing home. Gov. Cuomo hopes the cameras serve as more of a deterrent than means for evidence.

“We’ve had reports [of abuse] for many years, but they are hard cases to make,” Cuomo said in the story. “This allows us to make cases we couldn’t make before.”

While the practice has been lauded by the president of New York AARP, some individuals in the nursing home industry argue that the cameras bring up concerns of a patient’s privacy violation.

According to the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA), statistics on abuse, neglect or exploitation among the elderly is hard to track. However, according to the best available estimates, as many as 1 to 2 million Americans age 65 years and older have been injured, exploited or otherwise mistreated by a caregiver.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › New York puts more hidden cameras in nursing homes

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But hidden surveillance cameras set up over a six-week period in some patient’s rooms by the Attorney General’s office told a different story, according to the North County Gazette.

The videos showed that one patient wasn’t turned and positioned to prevent painful pressure sores or given range-of-motion exercises to keep his muscles from contracting. And that one patient didn’t receive water through his feeding tube – his only means of hydration. The staff charged with the neglect also administered heart medication without first checking his pulse rate, which could have resulted in an adverse response in his medication. And rather than changing his briefs every two hours as per doctors’ orders, the patient was left to sit in his waste for hours. The video also showed that the resident had not been bathed in a week.

The four nursing home employees were charged with criminal neglect and charges against more employees are expected.

Hidden video surveillance is not an uncommon practice in New York. The state leads the nation in using such forms of surveillance to investigate the abuse of nursing home patients. To date, 26 New York nursing home employees have been convicted based on hidden video recordings.

SOURCE: Nursing Home Abuse › Hidden cameras reveal neglect at NY nursing home

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