Camera Use in Long Term Care And Resident Right to Use of Technology

FORMS

• Resident Virtual Monitoring Technology Consent Form and Instructions
• Roommate Virtual Monitoring Technology Consent Form

SUMMARY PA NO 21- 55

EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2021, except the provisions on virtual monitoring and virtual visitation in nursing homes which took effect October 1, 2021. The State of Connecticut Passed Public Act No. 21-55 which makes various changes affecting long-term care facility residents. Principally, it:

1. adds to the nursing home patients’ bill of rights (see BACKGROUND) the right to treat their living quarters as their own home and extends these rights to residents of managed residential facilities (e.g., assisted living facilities);
2. allows nursing home residents to use technology of their choosing that facilitates virtual monitoring or virtual visitation and establishes related notification, use, and consent requirements;
3. requires residents to pay for the technology and its installation, maintenance, operation, deactivation, and removal;
4. requires nursing homes to provide residents with free internet access, electricity, and a power source for virtual monitoring or virtual visitationtechnology, under certain conditions;
5. generally grants nursing homes immunity from civil, criminal, or administrative liability related to residents’ use of this technology;
6. exempts from virtual monitoring technology requirements, with certain exceptions, (a) mobile telephones used primarily for phone communication or (b) tablets not used for virtual monitoring (hereafter “mobile phones and tablets”);
7. allows the Office of the Long-Term Care Ombudsman to develop and provide on its website standard consent and notification forms for the use of virtual monitoring technology; and
8. allows the Department of Public Health (DPH) commissioner to adoptimplementing regulations for the act’s nursing home virtual monitoring
9. and virtual visitation provisions.

Summary PA No 21-160

EFFECTIVE DATE: October 1, 2021: This act requires a nursing home to give its employee, or the employee of a contractor providing services at the home, access to a resident’s virtual monitoring or virtual visitation technology under the following conditions:

1. the employee is the subject of a proposed disciplinary action by the nursing home based on evidence obtained from the technology;
2.  the nursing home grants the access for the employee to defend him- or herself against the disciplinary action;
3. the employee and nursing home treat any recordings or images obtained from the resident’s technology as confidential and do not further disseminate them except as required by law; and
4. any copy of a recording or image used in the proposed disciplinary action is returned to the resident who provided it when the employee no longer needs it to defend against the action.

The act also allows the long-term care ombudsman, without consulting the nursing home, to ask a resident about the existence of recordings or images taken from virtual monitoring or virtual visitation technology that could corroborate an abuse or neglect allegation.

Additionally, the act allows a resident, or resident representative, to voluntarily release recordings or images taken from virtual monitoring or virtual visitation technology if doing so does not infringe on another person’s privacy rights under state or federal law.

It prohibits a nursing home, or its agent or employee, from soliciting or requesting such recordings or images from a resident or resident representative except to investigate an abuse or neglect allegation based upon them.

If the Department of Public Health initiates a complaint investigation based on a recording or image, the act allows the department to provide a copy of it to the nursing home that is the subject of the investigation.

Under the act, “technology” means a device capable of remote audio or video communications that may include recording capabilities. A “resident representative” is a person who is the resident’s

1. legally appointed health care representative, guardian, or conservator;
2. designee, as indicated in a signed written document in the resident’s facility records; or
3. legally liable relative or other responsible party who is not a facility employee or contractor