New York's Attorney General To Use Hidden Cameras at Buffalo Nursing Homes
We have previously discussed New York's use of hidden cameras to reveal abuse and neglect in some New York care facilities. Now, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is taking "granny cams" to the Buffalo area to help crack down on abuse and neglect at Buffalo nursing facilities. Cuomo's office was the first to use video camera surveillance at trial, which led to the conviction of several nurse aides and an owner of a nursing home on charges of nursing home abuse and neglect.
The cameras, used only with family permission, have revealed horrific abuse in the past, such as:
- failing to hydrate an immobile patient and leaving him in his own waste for nearly a day;
- failing to turn and position an immobile patient, leaving the resident at risk for bedsores;
- failing to shower a resident twice a week as required; surveillance tapes revealed that the resident had not been showered for over a week;
- failing to perform range of motion exercises, leaving the resident at risk of muscle contraction;
- leaving a comatose patient in waste for hours, while suffering from skin lesions, and not receiving proper care for his feeding tube; tragically, there were over forty occasions when the resident was not washed after an incontinent episode;
- caregivers sleeping, watching movies, or leaving the facility during shifts;
- falsifying records to conceal neglect; and
- only using one caregiver to transfer a bed-ridden patient to and from a wheelchair with a Hoyer lift that required the use of two caregivers, striking the resident's head on a side rail.
Cuomo used surveillance tapes from Medford Multicare Center and arrested four employees for dangerous neglect and further arrests are anticipated due to the ongoing investigation. To date, surveillance tapes have led to the convictions of 26 employees of various facilities.
