Articles Posted in COVID-19

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An outbreak of the novel coronavirus has infected 137 residents and killed 24 at The Commons at St. Anthony, a nursing home in Auburn, New York. According to a report on syracuse.com, the outbreak began on December 21, 2020, “as a wave of post-Thanksgiving Covid-19 cases began hitting the county,” per an official overseeing the home’s operations. The outbreak has affected 47 employees. Of the residents who died, 21 died at the nursing home, while three died at the hospital. Prior to the first three deaths that were reported at the nursing home on December 29, 2020, “There had been no nursing home Covid-19 deaths in Cayuga County.” As of the report’s publication on January 9, there have been 2,650 confirmed cases in Cayuga county.

According to the report, the nursing home responded to the pandemic by requiring employees to wear “gowns, gloves and face shields at all times when working with residents,” and isolated positive cases on their own floors. Employees are tested weekly, while residents are tested “on a schedule established by the state Health Department.” An infection by state health authorities found no issues with the nursing home’s infection control policies and procedures.

Records maintained by the Health Department show that as of January 8, 2021, The Commons at St. Anthony had received 27 citations for violations of public health code between 2016 and 2020. The citations resulted from a total of six inspections by state surveyors. They include the following:

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Ira Davenport Memorial Hospital suffered 28 confirmed and 1 presumed COVID-19 deaths as of January 2, 2021, according to state records. The nursing home has also received 36 citations for violations of public health code between 2016 and 2020, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on January 2, 2020. The Bath nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of six surveys by state inspectors. The deficiencies they describe include the following:

1. The nursing home did not adequately protect residents from accident hazards. Section 483.25 of the Federal Code requires nursing homes to ensure that resident environments are kept “as free of accident hazards as is possible” and that staff provide residents with “adequate supervision… to prevent accidents.” An April 2019 citation found that Ira Davenport Memorial Hospital failed to ensure such. The citation states specifically that one resident was not provided with sufficient protection from accidents and subsequently suffered a fall with injury. It a section describing the incident in question, the citation states that “the resident was walking in the hall, lost her balance, and fell to the floor hitting her head and sustaining a goose egg to her left forehead.” The registered nurse who documented the fall wrote that there were no fall protections in place for the resident. A plan of correction undertaken by the facility included the revision of her care plan “include the presence of safety devices, ambulation changed to assist of one due to presence of illness and 15 min checks instituted.”

2. The nursing home did not adequately protect residents from abuse. Under Section 483.12 of the Federal Code, nursing home residents are guaranteed the right “to be free from abuse, neglect, misappropriation of resident property, and exploitation.” A May 2018 citation found that Ira Davenport Memorial Hospital did not ensure such for one resident. The citation states specifically that a Certified Nursing Assistant hit a resident on the resident’s left thigh after the resident grabbed the CNA’s hair. According to the citation, the facility’s policies forbade abuse, and the CNA had received abuse training. A plan of correction undertaken by the facility included the termination of the CNA.

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Corning Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare suffered 28 confirmed COVID-19 deaths as of January 2, 2021, according to state records. The facility has also received 33 citations for violations of public health code between 2016 and 2020, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on January 2, 2020. The Corning nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of six surveys by state inspectors. The deficiencies they describe include the following:

1. The nursing home did not adequately protect residents from accident hazards. Under Section 483.25 of the Federal Code, nursing home residents are required to be provided with an environment that is “as free of accident hazards as is possible.” A March 2018 citation found that Corning Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare failed to ensure such when it served sliced turkey to a resident “who was on a mechanical soft diet with ground meats.” In an interview, one of the facility’s Licensed Practical Nurses stated that “according to the tray ticket, the resident should have received ground turkey, not sliced.” The facility’s Director of Food Services stated in an interview that “someone on the tray line must have made a mistake.” A plan of correction undertaken by the facility included the re-education of dietary staff.

2. The nursing home did not implement adequate measures to prevent and control infection. Under Section 483.80 of the Federal Code, nursing home facilities must “establish and maintain an infection prevention and control program designed to… help prevent the development and transmission of communicable diseases and infections.” A March 2018 citation found that Corning Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare failed to ensure such. The citation states specifically that in connection to one resident, “there was improper incontinence care and lack of glove changing and handwashing,” and that shower stretchers used by the facility for several residents “were not clean.” A plan of correction undertaken by the facility included the cleaning of shower stretchers and the re-education of the Certified Nursing Assistant who failed to provide proper incontinent care.

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The Riverside suffered 48 confirmed and 17 presumed COVID-19 deaths as of December 26, 2020, according to state records. The nursing home has also received 53 citations for violations of public health code between 2016 and 2020, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on December 26, 2020. The New York nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of four surveys by state inspectors. The deficiencies they describe include the following:

1. The nursing home did not protect residents from abuse. Under Section 483.12 of the Federal Code, nursing home residents have a right to freedom from abuse and neglect. A June 2020 citation found that The Riverside failed to ensure such. The citation states specifically that a resident who had “dementia and a history of physical aggression” participated in four altercations with other residents after the facility transferred her to a new unit. According to the citation, the facility did not put interventions in place to address this resident’s behavior and to protect other residents in the unit. It goes on to state that one altercation resulted in a laceration to the crown of another resident’s head; a subsequent altercation resulted in the aggressor’s transfer to the hospital for evaluation. A plan of correction undertaken by the facility included the review and revision of her care plan.

2. The nursing home did not provide adequate treatment for dementia. Section 483.40 of the Federal Code requires that nursing homes provide residents suffering from dementia with “appropriate treatment and services to attain or maintain his or her highest practicable physical, mental, and psychosocial well-being.” A June 2020 citation found that The Riverside failed to provide such. The citation states specifically that the facility did not take individualized interventions in response to a resident’s “increasing dementia-related behaviors that occurred after a room change,” specifically, the resident’s instigation of physical altercations with other residents, including hitting one over the head with a footrest. A plan of correction undertaken by the facility included the creation of a person-centered care plan for the resident.

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A new report by the New York Times sheds light on alleged misconduct by a New York funeral home during the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the report, the Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Home let scores of bodies of Covid-19 victims rot in U-Haul trucks parked outside its building. The owner, Andrew Cleckley, allegedly “continued to accept bodies even though he could not keep up with the mounting caseload and never sought outside help to lessen the burden,”  resulting in “dozens” of corpses “scattered haphazardly throughout the home,” with the families of decedents left unable to find their families members’ bodies. Continue reading

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A new analysis by City and State asks whether New York’s nursing home facilities are prepared for another wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Noting that while long-term care facilities have so far accounted for about 8% of Covid-19 cases, they have comprised about 40% of US fatalities from the disease. In New York especially, there have been 27,307 total Covid-19 deaths, of which 6,967 confirmed or presumed Covid-19 fatalities took place in nursing home facilities, a number that excludes residents who died outside of the facility. While nursing homes have improved their policies and procedures when it comes to Covid-19 since the virus initially struck, City and State argues, “there are still vulnerabilities that could leave nursing-home residents and staff at risk again.”

On the positive side, nursing homes are more likely to have more consistent access to tests and personal protective equipment, the analysis suggests. Nursing homes have already been conducting regular testing of all employees, and are required to have a 60-day supply of PPE. Additionally, a state rule has been reversed that in the spring led to nursing homes accepting Covid-19 patients from hospitals, spreading the virus throughout facilities.

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Harlem Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation suffered 3 confirmed and 29 presumed COVID-19 deaths as of December 4, 2020, according to state records. The nursing home has also received 33 citations for violations of public health code between 2016 and 2020, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on December 4, 2020. In May 2020, it received a fine of $24,000 in connection to unspecified findings of “multiple” health code violations. The Harlem nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of six surveys by state inspectors. The deficiencies they describe include the following:

1. The nursing home did not adequately establish and implement infection-control measures. Under Section 483.80 of the Federal Code, nursing homes must develop a program to prevent and control infection in a manner that provides residents a comfortable and sanitary environment. A May 2020 citation found that Harlem Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation failed to do so. The citation states specifically that facility staff were observed “not doffing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) appropriately as they left resident rooms”; that a resident admitted with a recommendation that they be placed on contact isolation with put in a room with a resident who was not on contact isolation; that residents were seen gathering in the facility’s common areas, where staff did not encourage them to socially distance; and that a resident who had been placed on contact isolation and droplet precautions was seen “eating lunch with other residents in the dayroom without maintaining social distance.” A plan of correction undertaken by the facility included the in-servicing of relevant staff.

2. The nursing home did not provide an environment adequately free of accident hazards. Under Section 483.25 of the Federal Code, nursing home facilities must ensure their residents’ right to an environment as free as possible from accident hazards, and in which every resident receives supervision and assistive devices adequate to prevent accidents. A February 2020 citation found that Harlem Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation failed to ensure such. The citation states specifically that “an oversized television was positioned on a slant, on top of a smaller dresser in a resident’s room,” and that after another resident sustained a fall, the incident was not assessed “to determine if updates were needed to the plan of care to prevent further falls.” A plan of correction taken by the facility included the mounting of the TV to the wall, and the review of the fall and updating of the resident’s plan of care.

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Coler Rehabilitation and Nursing Care Center suffered 13 confirmed and 1 presumed COVID-19 deaths as of December 4, 2020, according to state records. The nursing home has also received 31 citations for violations of public health code between 2016 and 2020, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on December 2, 2020. In July 2020, it received a fine of $30,000 in connection to unspecified findings of health code violations. The Brooklyn nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of four surveys by state inspectors. The deficiencies they describe include the following:

1. The nursing home did not adequately implement policies and procedures to prevent and control infection. Section 483.80 of the Federal Code stipulates that nursing home facilities must establish and maintain “an infection prevention and control program designed to provide a safe, sanitary and comfortable environment.” A May 2020 citation found that Coler Rehabilitation and Nursing Care Center failed to do so. The citation states specifically that did not follow “cohorting requirements’ laid out in state guidance related to the prevention and control of Covid-19. The guidance in question required nursing homes to maintain “protocols to separate residents into cohorts of positive, negative, and unknown as well as separate staffing teams to deal with COVID-positive residents and non-positive residents,” and to transfer residents wither within the facility or to another facility if they cannot separate patients in their own facility. The citation goes on to state that residents who tested negative for Covid-19 were not moved out of their rooms when their roommates tested positive. A plan of correction undertaken by the facility included the movement of affected residents and the re-education of staff regarding Covid-19 policies.

2. The nursing home did not adequately control pests. Section 483.90 of the Federal Code stipulates that nursing homes must “Maintain an effective pest control program so that the facility is free of pests and rodents.” A May 2020 citation found that Coler Rehabilitation and Nursing Care Center failed to ensure such. The citation states specifically that “filth flies and fruit flies were observed flying around a 4-bed occupancy room and crawling on the surface of a resident’s personal belonging that had been removed from the room,” and that a mouse was observed in a resident’s room, running across the floor. The flies in question were observed around a pile of “soiled crumpled napkins, 3 browned bananas, an orange, and used soda cups” on the floor of a resident’s room. I nan interview, a housekeeper said it’s “difficult” for housekeepers to clean the room in question because the roommate gets agitated “and may even become physical.” In another interview, the resident’s roommate said the resident has a hoarding problem, the facility rarely cleans the room, and “There are flies everywhere and she often sees roaches in the room.” A plan of correction undertaken by the facility included the cleaning of the room and the re-education of both the resident and housekeeping staff.

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Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has vetoed a hotly debated new piece of legislation that would protect nursing homes from coronavirus-related lawsuits, according to recent news reports.

The bill in question passed both houses of Pennsylvania’s state legislature, though Law360 notes it passed in the General Assembly “by narrow margins.”

Governor Wolf said in a statement about the veto that the bill extended too much protection to nursing homes, schools, hospitals, and various other businesses. “This legislation provides broad, overreaching immunity from civil liability during the current pandemic,” he said. “Shielding entities from liability in such a broad fashion as provided under this bill invites the potential for carelessness and a disregard for public safety.”

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Menorah Home & Hospital for Aged & Infirm suffered 15 confirmed COVID-19 and 48 presumed COVID-19 deaths as of November 23, 2020, according to state records. The nursing home has also received nine citations for violations of public health code between 2016 and 2020, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on November 24, 2020. The Brooklyn nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of three surveys by state inspectors. The deficiencies they describe include the following:

1. The nursing home did not protect residents from accident hazards. Section 483.25 of the Federal Code stipulates that nursing homes must ensure residents an environment as free as possible from accident hazards, and ensure that every resident receives supervision to prevent accidents. A March 2018 citation found that Menorah Home & Hospital for Aged & Infirm failed to ensure such. The citation states specifically that despite documentation for a resident to receive assistance from two persons and a mechanical lift for transfers, a Certified Nursing Assistant used a mechanical lift by herself to provide personal hygiene to the resident, resulting in the resident “sliding down and kneeling on the foot rest of the lift” and sustaining an injury to their tibia. In an interview, the CNA said that although the resident did not have “visible injuries to her legs,” she “did complain of pain.” In a separate interview, the facility’s Director of Nursing said “she believed it was poor judgment” that led to the CNA deciding to perform the care with the left on her own, without the assistance of a second person. A plan of correction undertaken by the facility included the in-servicing of nursing staff on the use of mechanical lifts. Continue reading

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