The Dickson Firm represents nursing home residents and their families in cases against the owners and the operators of nursing homes throughout the State of Ohio.
There have been some recents news regarding the expansion of Esther's Law here in the state of Ohio.
Senate Bill 154 was introduced to allow residents of assisted living facilities and residential care facilities or their representatives to install electronic monitoring devices in the rooms of the residents. The Ohio State Senate heard sponsor testimony in favor of this bill from State Senator Catherine D. Ingram on Tuesday, October 28, 2025.
Esther's law was enacted in 2022 and granted nursing home residents the ability to install in-room cameras to provide greater transparency between staff, residents, and their caregivers. This law was named after Esther Piskor.
Why is this recent news important?
The Dickson Firm was very proud to represent Esther Piskor in a horrible case of nursing home abuse. Esther Piskor was assaulted by multiple caregivers at the nursing home where she was a resident. Her son hid a camera in her room. The purpose of hiding the camera in her room was to find out who was leaving her window open. Esther Piskor liked her room very warm. When she would go off to therapy, the aides at the facility would come into her room and would turn the heat down and open the window to cool the room off. She was uncomfortably cold. Esther Piskor was unable to talk. And so her son endeavored to find out who was leaving her window open. No one at the nursing home would tell him and so he put a camera in her room. The staff covered up the camera with a towel and so he hid a camera in her room that recorded nonstop.
He would watch the footage as quickly as he could. Every week he had 168 hours of footage. And a great deal of it didn't show anything. There was footage of her room when she was not in it. There was footage of her just sitting in a chair, so a lot of the footage was mundane. However, one day her son discovered that the staff at the facility were physically abusing her. Two members of the staff ultimately went to prison. And The Dickson Firm successfully handled her case against the facility where she was a resident.
Esther Piskor's family went to multiple law firms before they came to The Dickson Firm. All of these firms turned them down. The nursing home where she was a resident was a political subdivision meaning that there were certain immunities and certain caps that applied. The Dickson Firm worked very hard to overcome those immunities. We also ran multiple focus groups about the case to determine the value of the case. And we ultimately were able to successfully resolve the case on behalf of the Piskor family.
Esther Piskor's son went on to advocate for Esther's law which was enacted in 2022. The purpose of the new law is to expand the current law to include residents of assisted living facilities and residents of residential care programs.
Do cameras make a difference? In our experience, they absolutely do. One of the things we saw during COVID is that when families were not permitted to enter the nursing home and monitor their residents, the quality of care declined considerably. When no one was watching the caregivers in many nursing homes horrifically neglected their residents. We have handled cases involving profound dehydration. We handled one wrongful death case where the DON and the assistant director of nursing pretended to test the residents for COVID but did not actually test the residents for COVID. As a result, multiple residents had COVID. Their COVID went undetected. And led to an extensive outbreak at the nursing home which led to our client's death and the death of multiple other residents.
Our experience has been that when residents are monitored and the care is monitored, it absolutely makes a difference.
Our best advice for anyone with someone they love in a nursing home or a residential care facility or an assisted living facility is to visit them often at all different times of the day. Show up first thing in the morning. Show up at meal time. Show up at 3:00 in the afternoon. Show up at 10:00 at night. Find out what's going on. When you go to the nursing home at different times, do you see lots of staff? Are there staff in the resident's rooms? Are there staff in the hallways? Also, when you are with your resident, does someone check on them on a regular basis? Is staff in and out of their room checking on them? If they need to be turned and repositioned to avoid skin breakdown, is someone coming in at least every two (2) hours and repositioning them? Visit them at mealtimes. If they need help with eating, is there someone in their room or someone with them in the dining room helping them eat? The best way to promote proper care of your loved one is to visit them often, monitor their care, and ask the staff questions about anything you have a concern about.
If someone you love has been neglected or abused in a nursing home, please call us at 1-800-OHIO LAW, as we would be happy to talk with you and help you in any way that we can.
To learn more about nursing home abuse and neglect in Ohio, please read:
Four Common Types of Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect
How Long Do I Have to Bring a Claim for Nursing Home Abuse or Neglect in Ohio?
3 Critical Questions to Ask Your Cleveland Nursing Home Injury Lawyer
‘Esther’s Law’ a step closer to allowing cameras into Ohio long-term care residents’ rooms
