Page 22 - Campus Security & Life Safety, September 2017

HEALTHCARE SECURITY
HIDDEN CAMERAS IN HOSPITALS:
HIPAA VIOLATION OR LIFE SAVING TOOL?
Exploring the use of covert cameras in healthcare campuses
By Derek Martinez
IS IT EVER ACCEPTABLE FOR A HEALTHCARE FACILITY TO INSTALL AND MONITOR CONVERT CAMERAS WITHIN A PATIENT’S ROOM? IN RARE CIRCUMSTANCES, HEALTH- CARE POLICE AND SECURITY DEPARTMENTS AROUND THE UNIT- ED STATES ARE INSTALLING COVERT VIDEO SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS TO SAVE THE LIVES OF CHILDREN.
VICTIMS
In 2015, Lacey Spears, mother of Garnett Spears and former nursing student, was sen- tenced to 20 years to life in a Westchester County, N.Y., courtroom; with the judge stat- ed that Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP) had caused Lacey to crave the atten- tion that being the mother of an ill child afforded her.
On January 23rd, 2014 Garnett, then only 5 years old, was taken off of life support one day after being declared brain-dead by physicians. As her son was lying in his hospital bed in immense pain and slowly dying, Spears took to her blog and social media channels, post- ing frequent updates for the sole purpose of gaining attention to herself.
In January 2017 a jury in Tulsa, Oklahoma jury sentenced another mother, Victoria Lee to eight years in prison with credit for time served from her arrest in 2013.
Court documents reveal that Lee had lied about her daughter’s medical symptoms to gain personal attention. These fabrications resulted in Lee’s daughter having unnecessary medical procedures performed; resulting in, but not limited to, a spinal tap, EKGs, six MRIs, physical therapy, and bladder studies.
MUNCHAUSEN SYNDROME
BY PROXY DEFINED
MSBP is a mental disorder in which a parent, typically the mother, fabricates an illness or induces a premeditated injury to her child. Often times the mother will come across as extremely loving and very concerned for her child. This expression outward concern often makes the diagnosis of MSBP very difficult, without concrete evidence.
Examples of induced injuries are feeding the child laxatives to induce diarrhea, smoth-
ering with pillows and other objects, poison- ing, and causing rashes using household cleaners or heavy abrasives. Examples of fab- ricated illness include lying about symptoms and often leads to the perpetrator being the only one to be able to temporarily cure her child. Fortunately, MSBP is extremely rare, with only two victims out of every 100,000 children; although mental health profession- als believe the statistics of victims to be slight- ly higher due to undiagnosed cases.
MSBP STATISTICS
98% of all MSBP perpetrators are women
The mortality rate of MSBP is 9%
Most victims are under the age of six
90% of parents with Munchausen’s have a great deal of medical knowledge
25% of MSBP involve two or more siblings
Most cases start at infancy (before the age of 2)
SECURITY’S ROLE IN THE PROTECTION PLAN FOR MSBP Leading security expert in MSBP, Bonnie Michelman, CHPA CPP, suggests implement- ing a multi-disciplinary child protection team that would become immediately involved as soon as MSBP is suspected by staff. She states the team should include hospital security management, a mental health practitioner, the primary care nurse, and an epidemiolo- gist for the purpose of potentially finding a cause for a disease. Police and security per- sonnel would be at the forefront of the team, with early involvement to assist with the investigation, the collection of evidence, assisting in case development for the prosecu- tion, and possible arrest.
The use of security surveillance cameras in hospitals is already common place considering there are camera deployments in parking garages, hospital entrance points, public hall- ways, cafeterias, gift shops, waiting rooms, and elevator lobbies. Video surveillance deploy-
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