Violations of Privacy: Nursing Home Staff Members are Violating Residents' Privacy |
Posted: January 23, 2018 |
In recent years, nursing home staff members throughout the country and here in California have been caught violating the privacy of patients at care facilities. This behavior is unlawful, and staff members who have perpetrated offenses against nursing home residents have faced criminal charges. When a patient’s privacy rights are violated, the California and Marin County elder abuse attorneys at Evans Law Firm, Inc. can help patients and their families pursue all available remedies against the care facility. Here’s what you need to know about past cases and about your rights. 1. Patient privacy violations have become a crisis. Since 2012, more than 65 separate incidents occurred in which patients had their privacy rights violated in nursing homes. Just in the past year alone, there have been at least 18 reported cases in which nursing home patients and seniors living in assisted living facilities have had their privacy violated. The number of incidents of serious privacy violations has been rising, and it is not clear why there are so many more instances of staff members of care facilities abusing nursing home residents by violating their privacy. 2. Patients are having their privacy violated on social media. The privacy violations being committed against vulnerable nursing home residents occur when staff members post photographs and videos on Snapchat and on other social media platforms. Examples include assisted living staff members sending pictures of the private parts of residents and posting surreptitiously recorded videos of residents engaging in sexual intercourse. 3. Some staff members who are charged with crimes indicate they didn’t know the behavior was wrong. One staff member of a nursing care facility who sent photographs of naked residents on Snapchat with a caption indicating “this is what I do at my job,” said that it did not cross her mind that posting the photo was wrong. 4. New efforts are being made to provide training and prohibit behavior. In response to the rising number of incidents in which patient privacy is violated by staff members, new rules and regulations are being put into place and enhanced training efforts are occurring. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services instructed state health departments to confirm that nursing homes had policies in place prohibiting staff members from taking and distributing pictures and videos of residents. Some states have expanded the definition of dependent adult abuse to include taking or transmitting photographs or videos if the goal is to shame, degrade, humiliate or harm the dependent adult. 5. Lawmakers are pushing social media companies to act. The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee has urged social media companies like Snapchat to take more actions to stop social media abuse of seniors and to make reporting of abuse simpler. Snapchat is now making it easier to report abuse within the Snapchat app with a new system that is under development. 6. Victims could potentially file suit. If a senior is victimized by having his or her privacy violated, the senior or his family could potentially file a lawsuit against the nursing home. The California and Marin County elder abuse attorneys at Evans Law Firm, Inc. can provide legal representation and advice to those who wish to pursue claims for any type of elder abuse, including privacy violations. Contact one of our attorneys today.
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