By William R. Levesque
Times Staff Writer
In Print: Sunday, August 5, 2012
TAMPA — Officials at the James A. Haley VA Medical Center insist they told the family of a severely brain-damaged veteran about a camera disguised as a smoke detector before installing it in his hospital room.
Hospital officials told the Tampa Bay Times and another media outlet that one of the man's relatives even signed a release acknowledging the unusual camera.
But Haley's own records appear to show the hospital's defense is simply untrue.
An internal "contact report" by an assistant nurse manager involved in Joseph Carnegie's care said angry family members approached hospital staff complaining about the camera after discovering it themselves.
The report by a supervisory nurse shows they were told nothing confirming its installation or use.
Then hospital officials told a Fort Myers television reporter that the Carnegies signed a release acknowledging the camera had been installed.
The Times requested a copy of that document.
Haley released two "contact reports" to the Times with the names of hospital staff redacted. "Yes, the family was aware and attached is the signed release," Haley spokeswoman Carolyn Clark said in an email providing the reports.
But the forms are not signed releases at all. And they clearly contradict the heart of Haley's defense that the family knew about the camera before its installation.
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