By Hadassa Kalatizadeh
New York State Attorney General Letitia James last week released a report which found that nursing homes’ response to the Coronavirus pandemic was inadequate. The AG has been investigating NY nursing homes since March, due to allegations of patient neglect which may have jeopardized the health of residents and employees.
As reported by Crain’s NY, James’ report found that the number of NY nursing home deaths may be higher than the figure published by NYS’s Department of Health, by up to 50 percent. The investigation also found that nursing homes failed to follow control protocols for infections, such as keeping sick employees home and properly quarantining COVID-19 patients. In particular, it found that those nursing homes which had lower staffing ratings before the pandemic, ended up having escalated COVID-19 mortality rates. James announced she will be conducting ongoing investigations into more than 20 nursing home facilities for infractions on protocols.
“As the pandemic and our investigations continue, it is imperative that we understand why the residents of nursing homes in New York unnecessarily suffered at such an alarming rate,” James said. “While we cannot bring back the individuals we lost to this crisis, this report seeks to offer transparency that the public deserves and to spur increased action to protect our most vulnerable residents. Nursing homes residents and workers deserve to live and work in safe environments, and I will continue to work hard to safeguard this basic right during this precarious time.”
The preliminary findings also outlined that a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) at the nursing homes and insufficient COVID-19 testing during the first wave of the pandemic placed residents at higher risk. The investigation also reiterated that Governor Andrew Cuomo’s guidance requiring nursing homes to the admit COVID-19 patients may have placed residents at greater risk.
James’ investigation questioned 62 nursing homes, which amounts to 10 percent of the total homes in NY, asking for their number of on-site and in-hospital COVID-19 deaths. The figures were then compared with the numbers published by the DOH for those facilities. The study is ongoing, but the AG said overall nursing home resident deaths appear to be undercounted by about 50 percent.
NYS Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker, appointed by Gov. Cuomo, offered a lengthy response to the OAG findings and defended the state saying there is actually no undercount in nursing home death figures, and that the March 25 Mandate was not a directive for nursing homes to accept COVID patients from hospitals even if they couldn’t care for them.
