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NURSING HOME WORKERS POSTINGS

The December 21, 2015 edition of the Washington Post and had a lead story of nursing home workers allegedly posting “humiliating and dehumanizing” photos on various social media websites, such as snapchat and others. If these allegations are true, they are potentially evidence of a violation of certain patient privacy laws. Washington Post reported on a ProPublica investigation and co-published the story on the same date. The investigation revealed at least 35 documented instances where a nursing home employee secretly took a picture or even a video of a nursing home resident in a humiliating or degrading light and posted them online. 16 of the 35 instances were with snapchat, where the picture appears for a short period of time and then disappears, with no lasting digital trail or record.

Some of the postings led to criminal charges in California. There is always the potential for federal criminal or civil liability charges if the allegations are true. As noted in previous blogs here, nursing homes in particular make the loudest cry when it comes to calls for changes to the laws allowing for cameras in nursing homes, with one nursing home employee union representative stating that cameras in nursing homes “takes away from the professionalism” of nursing home employees and is “unfortunate and creepy and wrong.” Such acts clearly are not representative of the vast majority of nursing home employees who do their job ethically, lawfully and with compassion.

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