New NJ Initiatives to Crackdown on Elderly and Disabled Patient Abuse
June 2017
The New Jersey Attorney General, Christopher Porrino, is intent on exposing and penalizing health care workers who mistreat or abuse the elderly and disabled in both home care and nursing home settings. He has speedily put in place new initiatives to expose and punish healthcare workers who are reported for neglect and abuse. By working closely with the NJ Department of Health, healthcare workers have been terminated and their licenses suspended prior to conviction of the criminal charges of assault,abuse, and neglect. Below are some of the NJ Attorney General’s initiatives and enforcement actions that are “game changers” for nursing home staff.
In December 2016, NJ Attorney General Porrino created the Safe Care Cam Program for New Jersey residents employing in-home care givers. The Program provides free hidden cameras and video cards to New Jersey residents who suspect their loved ones are being mistreated or neglected by an in-home caregiver.
Last month, May 2017,Attorney General Porrino expanded the Safe Care Cam Program for use in New Jersey nursing homes and other institutional care facilities. While New Jersey law permits a nursing home to create policy and rules regarding the use and installation of hidden video cameras in a nursing home resident’s room, there is no NJ law to date that would prevent video footage from a hidden video camera installed contrary to nursing home policy from being used in a court of law. It is also important to know that nursing home staff cannot refuse care or treatment to a resident based on the presence of a video recording device and to do so could result in charges of neglect, abuse and violations of licensure standards.
The NJ Attorney General Office has been working closely with the NJ Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, the NJ Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor, the NJ Department of Health, the NJ Department of Human Services’ Adult Protective Services , the NJ Office of the Public Guardian for the Elderly, and the NJ Office of the Ombudsman for the Institutionalized Elderly to effectively increase the reporting, public awareness, investigation, and prosecution of healthcare workers who neglect,mistreat or abuse elderly and disabled persons in both home and nursing home settings.
On June 15, 2017, the New Jersey Attorney General issued a news release raising awareness of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day and announcing criminal indictments against three certified nurse aides accused of physically abusing nursing home residents. Even though the news release stated that the indictments “are mere accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty”, the news release published photos of the defendants along with detailed accounts of the crimes for which they had been charged. This news release was picked up by major news corporations, including Fox News, and the photos of the nursing home employees together with the accounts of the alleged incidents were printed and published online.
With the expansion of the NJ Safe Care Cam Program to nursing home settings and the ever-expanding use of video cameras by nursing homes to monitor activities in public spaces, it is crucial that nursing home employees act and provide quality care at all times knowing that their actions may be recorded and used for or against them in a court of law.
