BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — "Granny cams" could soon be coming to Louisiana nursing home rooms.
Gov. John Bel Edwards on Thursday signed into law a bill that will allow Louisiana families to install video monitoring systems in their loved ones' nursing home rooms, if certain conditions are met.
Under the new law, nursing homes can't prohibit the cameras or retaliate against residents who want to install them. Cameras will be voluntary, and a long list of requirements would have to be met to use them. Signs must be posted, notifying people of the video monitoring systems.
By Jan. 1, nursing homes will have to provide forms to nursing home residents or their legal guardians outlining the ways the cameras can be installed.
The Louisiana Nursing Home Association raised concerns about the bill by Rep. Kirk Talbot, a Republican from River Ridge, including suggestions that live-streamed video could be hacked. But the objections couldn't slow the measure's passage as supporters and lawmakers told stories about wanting to keep track of family members who can't take care of themselves.
Among those pushing the legislation was Lucie Titus, who said her mother, an Alzheimer's patient, was unable to explain injuries she suffered in a Slidell nursing home. Titus told lawmakers that she asked to install a video camera system in her mother's room and was rebuffed by home administrators. She believes if she could have seen what caused her mother's injuries, treatment could have been quicker and have involved less pain.
Titus filed a lawsuit to set up the video monitoring, but her 92-year-old mother died in November 2017 before the issue was resolved.
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House Bill 281: www.legis.la.gov
