Although few of us visit our friends and family in nursing homes enough, we cannot visit nursing home residents around-the-clock, 24 hours a day, as we could if the resident were living at home.
Starting late last month, residents in Ohio nursing homes have the power to allow for their rooms to be electronically (audio, video or both) monitored. If a nursing home resident has granted power of attorney to a friend or family member, that friend or family member can decide to electronically monitor the resident’s room.
Access to the recordings (or streams of data) from the monitoring device may only be watched by the resident, the resident’s agent, law enforcement and anyone else identified by the resident. Thus, nursing homes themselves cannot “piggyback” on a resident’s monitoring device and watch the recordings or streams of data without the resident’s consent. Similarly, a nursing home cannot obstruct, tamper with or destroy an electronic monitoring device.
Before installation, the nursing home may require that the resident complete a form that includes information regarding the type, function and use of the identified monitoring device. That form may also explain that a resident who consents to electronic monitoring cannot complain (legally through lawsuits) about that resident losing privacy in the resident’s room.
Nursing homes can post notifications outside a monitoring resident’s room notifying anyone entering the room that the room is subject to electronic monitoring.
However, nursing homes cannot discriminate (in admission, discharge or services) against any resident who desires to allow private electronic monitoring of the resident’s room.
Residents or residents’ agents get to decide what electronic device is used and where it is located in the resident’s room. Monitoring devices may not be placed outside the resident’s room, even in public areas of the nursing home.
Notably, the cost of the electronic monitoring device itself along with the monitoring device’s installation, maintenance and operational costs (other than electricity) must be paid for by the nursing home resident (or the resident’s agent under a power of attorney). Therefore, a nursing home is not legally required to provide internet access for residents’ electronic recording devices. As a result, a resident seeking electronic monitoring may have to coordinate with the nursing home to allow the resident to install independent internet access (if necessary for the monitoring device that is being installed and used).
Nursing home residents who have roommates must have the roommate’s permission before installing an electronic monitoring device in the shared room. However, residents who desire electronic monitoring, but have a roommate who does not agree, can ask the nursing home to exercise the nursing home’s best, good faith effort to relocate the resident who seeks monitoring to another room with a roommate who consents. This responsibility of the nursing home is legally called, “making reasonable accommodations”. If the nursing home is out of extra rooms or roommates who consent to monitoring, the nursing home is not required to immediately find other ways to accommodate the resident who seeks electronic monitoring.
Lee R. Schroeder is an Ohio licensed attorney at Schroeder Law LLC in Putnam County. He limits his practice to business, real estate, estate planning and agriculture issues in northwest Ohio. He can be reached at [email protected] or at 419-659-2058. This article is not intended to serve as legal advice, and specific advice should be sought from the licensed attorney of your choice based upon the specific facts and circumstances that you face.
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April 09, 2022 at 09:44PM
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Legal-Ease: Electronic monitoring of nursing home residents' rooms - LimaOhio.com
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