To respond to ever-increasing violence, hospitals here and nationwide are equipping their security personnel with body cameras that record audio and video during tense situations.
Within the past year, Summa Health and Cleveland Clinic Akron General have started outfitting their hospital police and security forces with body cameras.
“Body-worn cameras have become standard practice in many health systems across the region as they improve documentation, support investigations and training and enhance safety, accountability and trust,” Keith Blough, chief of Summa Health’s police and security protective services department, said in a statement.
Body cameras can de-escalate situations, help with documentation of conflict and reduce the potential for a security officer to use an excessive amount of force, said Kelly Austin, vice president of KLA Risk Consulting, a Dublin, Ohio-based firm that specializes in hospital workplace violence.
“[A] huge advantage of body-worn cameras is once an officer says, ‘I’m activating my body-worn camera,’ you’d be surprised how often that de-escalates a person that is not acting in an appropriate manner for the public,” said Dan Yaross, a consultant with Security Risk Management Consultants LLC and immediate past president of the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety.
Hospital violence on the rise in recent years
In 2025, the American Hospital Association reported that up to 76% of U.S. health care workers said they had experienced violence, including 33% who reported experiencing physical violence.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the health care and social service industries are five times as likely to experience a workplace violence injury as workers overall in 2018.
And a National Nurses United nationwide survey found that 45.5% of nurses saw an increase in workplace violence in their unit from Jan. 1, 2023, to Dec. 31, 2023.
According to the survey, more than 80% of nurses experienced at least one type of workplace violence during the same time frame. Almost 68% were verbally threatened, and about 39% were physically threatened.
As a result of this, more than 65% of nurses experienced anxiety, fear or increased vigilance; about 33% suffered physical injury or other physical symptoms; and just more than 37% considered leaving the profession.
Scott Wiley, CEO of the Ohio Health Care Association, said in an email that violent incidents against health care workers peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic, a “period marked by severe staff shortages, heightened stress and unprecedented strain on the system.”
Rates declined somewhat by 2022, but they remain higher than pre-pandemic levels, he said.
“Violence most commonly involves patients, but it’s often tied to underlying medical or emotional distress,” he said. “That’s why solutions must focus on safety, training and support.”
Just last year in Canton, a man was accused of taking a hospital security officer’s gun and shooting a patient care technician. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity on Feb. 2.
Violence against health care workers has become such a serious issue that last September, Akron City Council approved an ordinance to make it a first-degree misdemeanor to menace a health care worker, requiring a sentence of at least three days in jail.
A response to violence against health care workers
Body cameras are commonly used among local police forces nationwide, with 82% of departments surveyed indicating they use the technology.
Supporters say body cameras also are proving useful in general hospital settings.
An International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety study found more than 78% of respondents used body camera footage to settle disputes in the hospital, and nearly 29% used footage in court.
Yaross, the security risk management consultant, described body cameras as a tool to help mitigate risk for hospitals. They are used for the safety of not only the officer, but everyone the officer interacts with as well.
“We find video evidence helps all parties,” Yaross said.
In the nursing home and rehab settings that the Ohio Health Care Association represents, Wiley said they are not currently using body cameras. He said preventing violence in these spaces requires a broader approach, with worker training focused on de-escalation, trauma-informed care and behavioral management.
Greater Akron hospitals say bodycam use follows patient privacy standards
The Cleveland Clinic has been outfitting its hospital-based police forces with body cameras for the past 12 months, while Summa Health implemented them for police and protective services officers in December.
At Summa, all officers receive comprehensive training on how to use and handle recorded footage, Blough said. The cameras are worn in a clearly visible manner, and their usage follows strict protocols that align with patient privacy standards and hospital policies.
At the Cleveland Clinic, the cameras are activated during law enforcement interactions and are not used in patient-care areas unless the officer is there responding to a safety concern, said Angela Smith, senior director of corporate communications.
Both hospital systems said their use of body cameras supports safety and transparency.
Recommended policies for operating body cameras
Yaross said there are very strict policies for operating these cameras. When implementing them, he said education and training are big factors to consider, along with the policy development itself.
The International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety has recommended guidelines for implementing body cameras in hospital settings, but it is ultimately up to each hospital to set its own standards and policies.
Christopher Congeni, a partner at the Amundsen Davis law firm, has helped multiple local health systems, including University Hospitals, Summa Health and Lake Hospital System, create their compliance policies.
These policies are created by a team of people from risk management, human resources, compliance and policy departments and medical executive committees, and should be updated regularly, Congeni said.
The most important factor in these plans is making sure a balance is struck between protecting patient health information and the public, he said.
“You don’t want to capture more than you think you need to,” Congeni said.
Even so, he said, “you can’t prevent every potential issue because you’re dealing with human beings, and it’s a fluid environment.”
For example, a compliance plan should address where an officer will be located during their shift, but sometimes, they may find their way into patient rooms because of a security issue or an emergency.
When are body cameras activated in hospitals?
Typically, body cameras are not turned on all the time, Yaross said. Individual policies dictate when they are to be used.
Motorola Solutions cameras, for example, typically don’t start recording until a button is pressed on the device, said Clay Cassard, vice president of global enterprise strategic sales for Motorola Solutions.
“Usually, the device is activated when the employee’s in distress … so that they can have some kind of forensic log on the event,” Cassard said.
Who can access the footage?
Yaross said access to body camera footage is tightly controlled by hospitals that use body cameras.
In his experience, only the most senior management within the security department, the investigator and IT are given access, since the footage lives on their network.
“We’re very protective, and organizations have to be,” he said.
Congeni said recordings can be encrypted and password-protected as well.
All data is completely managed by the hospital, no different than any other data they already have, Cassard said.
Outside law enforcement agencies are able to request the footage, but there are ground rules that must be followed and a process in place that varies by organization.
At his hospital system, Yaross said, they would review the requested footage, make sure there was no protected health information present on the video, send it to the legal risk management department, gray out any protected information, determine if a subpoena is needed or not and then burn a copy of the footage to send law enforcement over a thumb drive.
Could body cameras violate HIPAA?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which spells out patient privacy rules, does not regulate law enforcement, according to an Amundsen Davis article. Even so, the law requires medical facilities to provide “appropriate safeguards” to protect patient privacy.
Under HIPAA, video, photo and audio recordings are allowed for health care operations, which security purposes fall under, according to the International Association for Healthcare Security and Safety.
The organization recommends that body camera recordings be treated the same as any other protected health information and be stored on a network that meets patient privacy program requirements.
“We’re never going to violate the trust of our patients, patient families, and we’re never going to get in trouble with the federal government because we did not protect patient information,” Yaross said.
The public is getting more accustomed to seeing frontline workers with safety devices, Cassard said.
“I think that’s the driver behind it, is trying to give them a tool … that can help them feel safe and de-escalate events before they happen,” he said.
Lauren Cohen is a community reporting intern for the Akron Beacon Journal and Signal Akron. The position is funded through a grant from the Knight Foundation. The Knight Foundation is a financial sponsor of Signal Akron.