Various healthcare sectors in the U.K. , India, the U.S., Australia and the Netherlands have implemented bodycam solutions to deal with growing numbers of assault and unsafe working conditions. In order to deal with aggressive patients and bystanders in the street or at the hospital. With many more testing the possibilities, it is useful to experience exactly why bodycams have been implemented, who benefits, and what the results have been so far.

What are the benefits of bodycams for healthcare and paramedics?

What developments are there in terms of safety?

The first and foremost topic concerning bodycams in healthcare is the safety of staff and patients. Across the world worrying statistics show a concerning rise in verbal and physical abuses, with consequences for all. These abuses mostly come from bystanders at a scene, the patient themselves or their family and friends. The BBC found 3500 cases of assault against healthcare professionals in one year in the U.K. alone. In Germany, 30 cases of physical or verbal abuse a day were recorded against emergency service staff. In the Netherlands, 75% of healthcare workers have faced some sort of abuse in the last year. These worrying trends have led employers to bodycam solutions. In order to deter, de-escalate and record any escalating interaction with patients or bystanders.

Do bodycams increase staff and patient safety?

It is known from law enforcement agencies that verbal or physical abuse is drastically reduced when bodycams are present. In other industries/organisations such as retail, fire brigades, security there are similar positive experiences. As the experiences of Belgian police officers show, when bystanders know they are at risk of being filmed and prosecuted with the help of bodycams, they return to civilised interaction. There are several effects at work when bodycams are present, including:

• the ‘watching eye effect’, meaning people know they are being seen and recorded and therefore adjust their behavior
• the public knowledge that bodycams record evidence which can and will be used in any court proceedings
• the bodycam as extra tool or step during escalating incidents, which allows for a return to civilised interaction. With mentioning the presence of bodycams, the threat to turn it on, and the positive effect this has on escalation

British studies on bodycams in healthcare settings (2017 & 2019) showed that both patients and employees found the bodycams beneficial. There was a reduction in overall complaints and incidents, specifically the seriousness of incidents was much decreased. The research indicated that bodycam technology can help protect healthcare staff by severely reducing the number of abusive or violent incidents, as well as careful conclusions that the cost for this could be offset by less costs associated with serious incidents.

ZEPCAM customers from several hospitals indicate that the bodycams have helped deter and de-escalate resulting in increased safety and feelings of safety. With evidence to back up any employee when escalations do occur.

Is sensitive patient, employee and bystander data stored and accessed safely and legally?

The answer to this question is directly related to the specific bodycam systems in use. There are unsecured or unencrypted bodycams available on the market that do not hold up to the high standards of protection for personal or medical data. Other bodycams will have encryption, but access to footage (video management software) is unrestricted or not properly organised. This results in high risks of illegally breaching data and privacy laws. Yet other bodycam providers will have cloud-based operations, which store data in countries with potential risks in terms of external government interference or access. With proper due diligence, every healthcare organisation can determine what level of security they need.

When bodycam systems are secure, encrypted, with logging and access controls then rest assured, they will comply with national regulations and be safe to use.

Encryption (especially AES or comparable levels) will ensure that no hacker will be able to see or use bodycam footage. They cannot access the decryption key and attempting brute force would require more attempts than all the computers in the world could make in a lifetime.

Logging and access control will ensure that no one can access sensitive patient or staff data without being authorised to do so. This is especially necessary with any sort of medical data.

Some providers also offer on-premise bodycam solutions, meaning the hardware and software is completely controlled by the organisation themselves.

Cloud-based operations, if data storage and location is managed according to national laws, are also secure. Patient and staff data, including images and sound, are

• safely stored on the bodycam
• securely transferred through docking stations to the restricted and secure server
• where only those authorised can access bodycam footage

Can bodycam footage be used as evidence against aggressive patients and bystanders?

Bodycam footage has a long history of being used in court to provide evidence of transgressions on both sides of the camera. For nearly 20 years bodycams have been used to gather evidence. Leading to cost-saving evidence which result in early guilty pleas, as well as reduced complaints about frontline staff. Law firms are even calling bodycams the new gold standard for evidence, as they completely record interactions. With pre and/or post-recording functionality, they even record up to 120 seconds before or after the bodycam was activated.

Furthermore, bodycams are often much better eyewitnesses to any event, because they are not affected by emotions and their inherent effect on memory. During escalating incidents with patients or bystanders, the bodycam provides a neutral observer that records everything that was said and done by all sides.

As mentioned earlier in this article, if a bodycam system complies with all local and national laws, all evidence is admitted in courts. The footage recorded by bodycams is accepted and often preferred over eyewitness statements. It results in time and money saved as hard video evidence results in shorter court cases and quicker convictions for offenders. With bodycam systems to protect the actions of healthcare professionals and provide evidence of wrongdoing by patients or bystanders, hospital staff, paramedics and care workers can greatly benefit.

Can bodycams be used for training healthcare professionals?

Training is an essential part of any profession with data at its basis. What situations occurred, which actions were taken, what was the reaction of all parties to these actions and how was the situation eventually resolved?

Bodycam footage, with audio, video and even metadata such as GPS can greatly benefit the analysis of situations or escalations, and provide data for future best practices. By analysing bodycam footage of (inter)actions, employers and staff can judge what went well and what requires attention.

Furthermore, as bodycams capture a lot more than can often be remembered, more information is available. With a database of bodycam footage, training new staff can be more efficient and direct. A firefighter training centre in the Netherlands uses bodycam footage daily to analyse and improve the actions of their students, with great success.

How can livestreaming bodycams benefit healthcare operations?

Secure and stable livestreaming bodycams are a quite recent and new development. Only a few bodycam providers offer this capability, with several key benefits.

Safety

With secure livestreaming bodycams for paramedics or hospital staff, security officials or law enforcers can be directly connected to an activated livestream at the click of a button. When transmitted with GPS location, immediate action can be taken to find and support at-risk employees without any explanation during heated moments. Instant visual communication through livestreaming bodycams has shown to result in faster, better reactions, as what is occurring is being directly transmitted and analysed in real time.

Telemedicine opportunities

A growing topic of healthcare research is telemedicine, or diagnosis at a distance. Some early results indicate that telemedicine is a viable and effective solution, for example for paramedics who need expert advice at a scene. With 4G/ 5G connections, as well as Wi-Fi capabilities livestreams are stable and well suited for the diagnosis of various conditions and developments.

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