On June 6, 2013, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced that he would begin installing covert surveillance cameras in residents’ rooms at nursing homes state-wide to investigate allegations of abuse. Since then, DeWine’s office has already used “spy cams” in one investigation that resulted in a Zanesville nursing home being shut down.

DeWine’s position is that if the resident consents to the Attorney General’s installation of a camera, then the camera’s presence is completely legal. By no means should a nursing home ever attempt to impede an Attorney General investigation. There is no clear legal prohibition against the use of surveillance cameras in nursing facilities, but facility administrators should be aware that the Ohio Attorney general is engaging in such practice. Thus, until further notice – whether through judicial or legislative action – DeWine’s office may continue to use spy cams in nursing homes around the state.

The installation of spy cams in a nursing home by a private citizen, however, is a different matter. Both state and federal law confers to nursing home residents various rights of privacy that would be undermined by the presence of a surveillance camera broadcasting images of residents to an off-site, third party location. Until the Ohio legislature or Congress gives private citizens the right to install a spy cam at a nursing home in Ohio, all facilities should have in place a “no surveillance camera” policy of some kind. Such a policy is necessary to uphold the state and federal privacy rights to which nursing home residents are entitled.

For guidance in writing your facility’s policy on surveillance cameras, contact a DLM Legal attorney.