Committee backs bill allowing residents or families to install room cameras in residential care facilities

Representative Dory Healy presented House Bill 337, which would allow a resident, a resident’s guardian, or a health-care agent to authorize installation and use of an electronic monitoring device in a resident’s private room in a residential care facility and would require facilities to permit such devices.

The bill, Rep. Dory Healy said, is “optional” and intended to let “loved ones or the resident to put a camera in their room so that families can help check‑in on them.” Healy cited national statistics during her presentation about elder abuse as part of the bill’s rationale and told the committee the measure is modeled after statutes in about 10 other states.

Why it matters: Supporters said electronic monitoring can give families evidence when they suspect abuse and provide an additional oversight tool for vulnerable residents. Opponents — including multiple long‑term care administrators, nurses and industry groups — told the committee the measure, as written, raises privacy, operational and legal concerns for residents and staff.

What the bill would do: Under the draft discussed, a resident, resident…