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Nurses upset after discovering hidden cameras

Healthcare Security Weekly, November 30, 2004

Nurses at Good Samaritan Hospital raised concerns last week about privacy after discovering 16 tiny cameras hidden throughout the facility, the Associated Press reported.

During the summer, the hospital installed cameras as part of a security plan. Hospital officials said they intended to place signs notifying people about the cameras, but haven't yet. The cameras are off, officials said.

One nurse spotted wires dangling from a wall clock and then saw a pea-sized lens. Soon enough employees noticed the tiny cameras in the lounges, fitness center, conference room, and a pharmacy.

"We feel they have violated our rights and our privacy," Sussette Nacorda, a nurse in the coronary care unit, who found a camera in a lounge, told the AP.

Break room thefts prompted the additional camera surveillance. "Our goal is not at all to spy on" nurses, Sammy Feuerlicht, the hospital's vice president of business, said. "Our goal is to make employees feel more comfortable, not less comfortable."

However, the nurses reportedly believe the camera's angle gives partial views of locker rooms and visitor areas where mothers breastfeed and change clothing.

But hospital officials said employees shouldn't change in public rooms.

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