Cameras in Surgery Pit Patient Privacy Against Hospital Safety

The women suing a California hospital for recording their private medical procedures, including hysterectomies and surgeries after miscarriages, say they never agreed to be filmed.

But it was all there in writing.

Eighty-one women allege the hospital filmed them partially robed on operating tables, both conscious and unconscious, during medical procedures. The patients claim in a lawsuit filed last month that the hospital unlawfully invaded their privacy, but health-care lawyers say maybe not.

Like most hospitals, the La Mesa, Calif.-based Sharp Grossmont Hospital requires its patients to sign an admission agreement before being treated.

The admissions form is many hospitals’ ...