I-Team: AG Madigan announces new nursing home surveillance legislation

CHICAGO (WLS) -- On Monday, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan proposed implementing a law that would make Illinois the sixth state in the country to allow cameras in nursing home resident's rooms to protect them from abuse and neglect.

Chuck Goudie and the ABC7 I-Team reported back in the spring that Illinois gets a failing grade for nursing home care, yet residents cannot protect themselves with cameras.

In 2012, the family of 96-year-old Oklahoma nursing home resident Erytha Mayberry, put a camera in her room. What they caught on tape changed state law.

Footage showed an aide stuffing latex gloves into Mayberry's mouth and pressing on her chest. She died soon after. The nursing home aid is serving a year in jail.

This video prompted Oklahoma to permit voluntary room surveillance cameras in long term care facilities and made them one of only five states to do so.

Chuck Goudie and the Abc I-Team first reported in May that a 2014 national study gave Illinois a failing grade in nursing home care, ranking it near the bottom of all states in key nursing home functions. However, all efforts to allow cameras into Illinois nursing homes have failed.

Today Lisa Madigan announced she will back legislation permitting video and audio monitoring in nursing homes. Illinois state senator Terry Link says he will be drawing up the bill and looking for co-sponsors.

"When our loved ones are in nursing homes they are not always safe and they are not always well cared for," Madigan said.

"I don't think there's going to be a lot of opposition," said Link.

Rosemary Pulice of suburban Elmhurst, has worked for 20 years with advocacy group Nursing Home Monitors, to get camera legislation passed after her father Joe deteriorated and died in a nursing home. She has contacted dozens of Illinois legislators over the years but says the powerful nursing home lobby has blocked change.

"We know for a fact the nursing home industry is very wealthy, they have a cache of lawyers to protect them and they give millions of dollars to politicians for their campaigns and that's what will kill this bill in the legislature," Pulice said.

The last time camera legislation was introduced in Illinois was back in 2003.

The I-Team reported the author of that bill met with resistance from the nursing home industry and the bill died in committee.

State Senator Link says he hopes to propose legislation in January.

The Healthcare Council of Illinois, which represents 500 nursing homes in the state, sent a statement to the I-Team which read: "We look forward to working with our elected officials in reviewing data on this issue and making sure our residents are protected. The safety of all our residents is of the highest priority. Privacy remains a serious concern, especially as it relates to HIPAA."