Healthcare video surveillance balances security and privacy

Footage captures anesthesiologist removing drug vials, but also exposes many female patients


When a California hospital suspected that someone was stealing drugs from anesthesia carts, it equipped the carts with motion-activated cameras. The video surveillance worked, according to an article on the Outpatient Surgery website.

The hidden cameras captured an anesthesiologist placing vials of drugs, including propofol, in his scrub top pocket a dozen times. 

They also recorded women under anesthesia undergoing C-sections, tubal ligations and other gynecological procedures — along with footage the doctor says would exonerate him because it shows him administering and returning the drugs he had taken. 

The hospital doesn't want to release the additional footage because, it says, it can't compromise "vulnerable, exposed" patients.

Read the article.

 

 



May 23, 2016


Topic Area: Safety


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