by Clark Kauffman, Iowa Capital Dispatch
April 1, 2026
An assisted living center in Iowa recently used a video camera owned by a female resident’s family to document the staff’s neglect of the woman.
The use of resident-owned cameras in senior care facilities is a hotly contested issue in Iowa with resident advocacy groups repeatedly pushing for legislation that would prohibit state-licensed care facilities from banning the use of such devices.
Over the past 10 years, industry lobbyists have vigorously opposed the legislation and state lawmakers have repeatedly failed to approve the measure.
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However, some Iowa nursing homes and assisted living centers, as a matter of corporate policy, allow residents or their families to install video-monitoring cameras in rooms or apartments, and in some cases the facilities themselves make use of the resulting video.
State records show one such company is Better Living Health Care Services, which operates several different assisted living centers in Iowa. According to the records, an employee of Better Living, Abigail Reed, worked last year in one of the company’s assisted living centers, where she was tasked with checking on residents and assisting them with their daily activities.
The company has alleged that as part of her job, Reed was required to visually check on each resident at least once every two hours.
On Oct. 21, 2025, Reed worked the night shift, which began at 10 p.m. and ended the following day at 6 a.m. At the end of her shift, she reportedly documented having checked on each resident at least once every two hours, according to state records. When the morning staff arrived at 6 a.m., they allegedly found a female resident of the center lying on the floor.
State records show that a short time later, a relative of the resident contacted Better Living about the footage that was captured by the surveillance camera the family kept in the resident’s room. The family reported the video showed the resident got out of bed and fell to the floor at 2 a.m., and remained there for four hours, unable to get up.
After obtaining a copy of the video footage from the resident’s family, Better Living fired Reed for failing to check on residents and for falsifying records — charges Reed denied. She was later denied unemployment benefits, with a judge ruling she had committed substantial job-related misconduct.
State records show that Brenda Smith, the executive director of Better Living’s Apple Valley assisted living center in Clear Lake, testified at Reed’s recent unemployment-benefits hearing. Reed declined to comment on the case and referred all questions on the matter to corporate officials who could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Earlier this year, Iowa lawmakers considered Senate Study Bill 3080, which would guarantee residents of Iowa nursing homes the right to conduct electronic monitoring of their room through the use of video cameras — sometimes called “granny cams” — placed inside their room with the consent of any roommates.
The bill was scheduled to be discussed at a January meeting of the Iowa Senate Committee on Technology chaired by Sen. Charlie McClintock, a Republican from Alburnett. However, the bill was pulled from the agenda shortly before the meeting began. McClintock said later the bill was removed from the agenda once the panel determined it did not have the support of a majority of the committee’s members.
A similar bill considered in the Iowa House, House File 664, was introduced in February, but has yet to advance. Both bills missed the Legislature’s “funnel” deadlines for committee approval and are considered dead for the session, short of any action to attach the language as an amendment to another bill or revive it as a leadership bill.
Cameras document death, neglect in Iowa homes
State inspection and unemployment records show that in Iowa facilities where cameras are deployed, they have been used to document abuse and neglect:
Bondurant death: In 2022, an Iowa caregiver who worked at the Courtyard Estates assisted living facility in Bondurant was charged with murder after surveillance video captured her walking around the facility for hours without checking on a woman who had fallen to the ground outdoors and frozen to death. The worker later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of dependent adult abuse.
Woodward death: In 2025, inspectors cited the state-run Woodward Resource Center for failing to provide adequate supervision of residents after a 22-year-old resident died during the overnight shift. The home’s video-surveillance system was used to show the staff had failed to perform the required checks on the man during the night and then failed to immediately administer CPR when the man was found unresponsive.
Marion neglect: Also last year, a caregiver at The Views of Marion faced licensing board sanctions for his conduct while working the overnight shift at the home. Regulators alleged the care facility’s video-surveillance system showed the worker was inside the facility for less than three hours of his 12-hour shift while serving as the only nurse on duty to care for roughly 40 residents.
Waukon death: Also in 2025, state inspectors relied on surveillance video to document neglect that led up to the death of a resident at Waukon’s Northgate Care Center. According to the inspectors, the staff at Northgate mistakenly gave a woman medications intended for another resident – after which, surveillance footage showed the resident falling to the floor as three workers stood by and then failed to assess her injuries.
Nationally, at least 22 states have passed laws concerning residents’ use of cameras in nursing homes, and at least 16 of those states give residents the express right to use such cameras regardless of the homes’ corporate polices. Some states, such as New Jersey, have gone even further, setting up camera-rental programs run out of the state attorney general’s office.
Other states allow nursing home operators to prohibit the use of resident-owned cameras, as Iowa now does.
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Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com.
