First of all, I’m an advocate to the Portal by Facebook. I’ve been sharing this great way to communicate with others on Facebook and word of mouth. It came out during Covid19 when we couldn’t see our loved ones in the nursing home. What great timing! That’s why I bought it for my mom! Thank you!
My mom is living in a nursing home and I bought her the Portal by Facebook in December. She has Parkinson's and can no longer use her cell phone, because of her shaking. The Portal helps my mom so much. She doesn't have to use her shaky hands to answer a call or make one. It makes her feel like we're in the room with her. Now the nursing home wants to restrict my mom from using her Portal because it's something new and they don't understand it. They said it's against the HIPAA law because of mom's roommate in the room with her. It would be no problem if mom had a room to herself. The roommate doesn’t seem to have an issue with the Portal as she talks to me during my calls to mom as well. How can I reach out to someone at Portal by Facebook to see if they can help me fight this? I can’t help but wonder if their trying to hide something by doing this. I don’t think that’s the case but still. They don’t have restrictions on cell phone where I’m sure many face time residence there. I told the nursing home that using the Portal is the same as if I was sitting in the room with my mom. If a doctor was going to come in to see mom’s roommate, just ask me to leave. With the Portal, you simply turn the camera off or unplug it. The nursing home wants to restrict my mom to only using the Portal a couple hours a day and then it will be unplugged. If mom wants to talk to someone, or someone wanted to talk to her, we would each need to call the nurse so they can move mom and her portal to a public area for her to use the Portal. That makes no sense to me. My mom sometimes calls me 10 times a day. Note: it takes 2 nurses to move mom, she can’t walk on her own, so she would have to wait until they had 2 nurses that were free to move her and the Portal to this public area and then back to her room when to conversation was finished. That would take more work from their staff that they don’t have. My mom is so upset because she needs to know she can call me at anytime and I’m there. How can they set a policy for the Portal when it’s just like me sitting in the room with mom. Their afraid someone will hear some personal information. So again, I said it’s no different than physically being in the room with her or even on a cell phone face timing. All they have to do is ask that we end our conversation and call back later. They don’t need to take the Portal from my mom. Where are her rights? Their removing her only means to communication. Plus, I’m her POA and I need to make sure she’s okay. Can you help me?
I believe I registered the Portal in my mom’s name Dolores Kring with my email address of 2011itsmylife@gmail.com. A support ticket was made and that is 2600601.
Thank you! Ronda Balsley