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For the more than a year, residents at Charlotte Harbor Healthcare in Port Charlotte, FL were intentionally monitored by hidden cameras camouflaged beneath ceiling tiles. The cameras were discovered when investigators from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) were inspecting the facility for mold earlier this year. The feeds from the cameras were routed to the administrator, Thomas Bell’s office.
Bell told AHCA representative that the cameras were there ‘to prevent theft’. Despite Bell’s assertion, no theft-related incidents had been reported at Charlotte Harbor. Residents were never informed on the cameras presence. AHCA is evaluating the circumstances and may impose a fine for this cleat violation of privacy.
Is it realistic to expect privacy in a nursing home setting? Too often were forget that nursing homes are ‘home’ for more than one million people in the United States. True, most of the people are elderly and many of them face serious medical conditions– but every effort should be made to promote as home-a-like setting as possible.
Read more about this situation involving a violation of privacy in a Florida nursing home here.
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