Photography & Recording - Glens Falls Hospital
Privacy & Patient Confidentiality
Photographing, filming, or recording in any way of patients, staff members or any Glens Falls Hospital data, equipment or property by patients, visitors, or others is prohibited except as described below.
In the context of treating patients, recordings should be taken only if the provider has determined that they will add value in treating or diagnosing the patient. Either the patient or, when the patient is unable to consent, their personal representative may consent.
Patients may allow family members or visitors to photograph, film or record the patient while in the hospital, subject to specific limitations described below, and subject to any restrictions that may be imposed by hospital staff related to patient safety and/or disruption of patient care. The hospital expressly reserves the right to suspend this privilege if in the judgment of hospital staff, the care of any patient may be jeopardized and/or any time hospital operations may be impaired. Whether or not the request is related to a care issue, the staff member receiving the request should seek assistance through his/her manager or other appropriate resource to evaluate and develop an appropriate response to the request. Patients, family members and visitors involved in requests to record a patient should be informed of the rules applicable to this privilege.
Conditions
If a patient requests a family member or visitor to record the patient, the recording may take place provided the following conditions are met:
- Staff may not be recorded without their specific knowledge and permission.
- Recording is not to take place when staff is providing treatment or having a discussion with any patient, including other patients in the room or area, such as in a semi-private room.
- Patients, family or visitors may not record any other patients without their specific knowledge and permission, or authorization where required.
- Specific rules apply to requests to the recording of obstetrical and newborn infant patients. If a maternal patient wishes to have a family member or support person record her and her newborn during the perinatal period, including during labor and delivery, it shall be permitted regardless of the type of delivery, provided the patient agrees and subject to the limitations of sections a, b and c of this paragraph. However, the anesthesia evaluation interview, anesthesia block procedures and all aspects of general anesthesia in OB may not be recorded. As a general rule, family and visitors approved by the patient will be permitted to record during vaginal delivery procedures, and during cesarean delivery procedures with spinal or epidural anesthesia. However, any member of the OB health care team has the right to direct the location of the activity, and to limit or suspend the activity. Any member of the OB health care team may request and if necessary direct that recording be stopped if the process is interfering with or threatening the safe care of the patient or her newborn, or disruptive of hospital operations.
Protecting Privacy Rights
To protect the privacy rights of our workforce members, all patients, visitors, and staff members are prohibited from recording employees or staff without their express permission while they are on the hospital premises or working off-site.
Recordings of staff while on Glens Falls Hospital premises, hospital equipment, or the hospital environment for nonclinical purposes other than education and quality improvement should be coordinated through the Communications & Marketing Department, which will ensure that the appropriate authorizations are obtained.
A letter of warning may be issued under the hospital’s Disruptive Patient Policy, and a failure to adhere to this policy after the issuance of a letter of warning authorizes hospital staff to confiscate an offending patient’s unattended recording device (e.g. phone) for the remainder of the patient’s admission.
