WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — There are plenty of places you expect to be on camera, the bank, a drive-thru, in a store. Yet, you probably don't expect to be on camera in the exam room of a doctor's office.
Just recently, a WFMY News 2 viewer snapped a picture from the exam room she was in at Atrium Wake Forest Baptist Urgent Care on West 1st Street in Winston-Salem.
The camera is up top, over the cabinets. The viewer saw the camera after her exam was done. She says she called the urgent care after she left and was told the camera wasn't recording.
2 Wants To Know got in touch with Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist to see how and when the cameras are used and how patients are alerted to them being in the room.
Here is the full statement from Atrium Wake Forest Baptist:
As an academic learning health system, the cameras are only used for teaching purposes and only with the consent of the patient. If the red light is not on, the camera is not recording. Our clinicians typically explain to patients the purpose of the cameras, but of course, patients are always welcome to ask any questions they may have.
The cameras have been in the rooms for several years. Patients who choose to allow recordings for training purposes are given both a verbal explanation and a consent form to sign prior to any recording beginning. Recording interactions between learners and patients (with their written consent) is a vital part of an academic learning health system such as ours and helps produce better and more empathetic clinicians. The cameras are positioned toward the computers and not the exam beds.
2WTK still has questions about how the hospital keeps the feed secure, so an outside source can't hack into it. We'll be following up.
2WTK asked Cone Health and Novant Health if they too had cameras in their exam rooms.
As a teaching facility, Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center uses videography to enhance physician training. With the consent of the patient, select patient-provider interactions are recorded and analyzed to improve patient experience and outcomes. --Novant Health spokesperson
Cone Health has cameras in its intensive care units. Those are used to remotely check in on patients. -- Cone Health spokesperson