A recent report by the Long Term Care Community Coalition raises important questions about “no harm” deficiencies in nursing homes across the United States. “No Harm” deficiencies are health violations cited by official surveyors that are classified as causing no harm to residents. As the LTCCC argues in its Elder Justice newsletter, “no harm” citations […]
Neglect
Nursing Homes With Questionable Records Seek to Block Reform in New York
A recent article in The Prospect details the “extraordinary” lawsuit filed by hundreds of New York nursing homes against the state health commissioner in an effort to block a new law mandating that nursing homes “spend a majority of their revenue on patient care.” As The Prospect explains, the lawsuit alleges that the law unconstitutionally […]
Heritage Park Rehab & Skilled Nursing Cited for Abuse Reporting
Heritage Park Rehab & Skilled Nursing has received 7 citations for violations of public health code between 2018 and 2021, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on January 29, 2022. It has also been identified as a candidate for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ list of Special Focus Facilities, […]
Private Equity Firms Are Taking over Nursing Homes, to Residents’ Detriment
In a recent presentation at the annual Consumer Voice conference, nursing home experts Ernest Tosh and Eileen O’Grady unpacked the adverse effects of private equity ownership of nursing homes. The presentation, available in clips on Consumer Voice’s website, explains how private equity firms are increasingly taking over the long-term care industry in the United States. […]
Why Nursing Homes Avoid Scrutiny for Huge Penalties
A recent investigation by ProPublica examines why for-profit nursing home operator Sentosa Care has become New York’s biggest nursing home group in recent years despite its “record of repeat fines, violations and complaints for deficient care in recent years.” The key reason, according to the report: systemic failures in the state’s review and approval process […]
Report: Why Nursing Home Oversight Fails the Public
A new investigation by CalMatters asks why a nearly-$1 million fine issued against a California nursing home over alleged health code violations went unknown by consumers. In 2018, state health inspectors visited the facility, Fresno’s Northpointe Healthcare Center, and found it to have health and safety deficiencies that put its residents in “immediate jeopardy.” These […]
New York Assembly Report: Cuomo Omitted Nursing Home Covid Deaths
A New York assemblyman has said that the legislative body’s investigation of former governor Andrew Cuomo found that his administration provided misleading information about Covid-19 deaths in New York nursing homes, according to a recent AP News report. The assembly’s inquiry reportedly confirmed earlier investigations by news organizations that found “gaps in the state’s statistical […]
Do Regulators Let Nursing Home Understaffing Slide?
A new report by the Long-Term Community Care Coalition has found that while insufficient staffing is a widespread problem in nursing homes, state nursing home surveyors rarely issue citations for it. The report, titled “Broken Promises,” analyzes nursing home citations from 2018 until 2020.
Data Suggests Lax Nursing Home Resident Rights Enforcement
The Long-Term Community Care Coalition recently published the results of its analysis of nationwide nursing home citation data from 2018 to 2020. The organization’s report, titled “Broken Promises,” found that whereas Long-Term Care Ombudsmen receive complaints about resident rights violations more than most other violations, only 2% of citations during the period in question were […]
New Analysis Questions Antipsychotic Drug Use in Nursing Homes
A recent analysis of federal nursing home citation data by the Long-Term Community Care Coalition found that nearly 20% of nursing home residents in the United States have been administered one or more antipsychotic medications, the unnecessary use of which are prohibited by federal law. That figure constitutes more than 250,000 nursing home residents.
Are Nursing Home Regulators Doing Enough to Stop Pressure Sores?
A new report by the Long Term Community Care Coalition reveals that nearly one in ten nursing home residents have unhealed pressure ulcers. According to data analyzed by the organization, 7.92% of nursing home residents in the United States, or approximately 92,000 people, are suffering from unhealed pressure ulcers. The LTCCC suggests that this figure […]
Van Duyn Center Cited for Abuse, Medication Errors
Van Duyn Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing has received 89 citations for violations of public health and safety code between 2017 and 2021, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on October 15, 2021. The Syracuse nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of 20 surveys by state inspectors. The most recent inspection—on […]
Nursing Home Understaffing Worsens over Covid-19 Pandemic
Plummeting staffing levels have devastated the nursing home industry, according to an Associated Press analysis which found that one-third of US facilities have “fewer nurses and aides than before the Covid-19 pandemic.” One expert described the stark decline in staffing levels as “appalling.”
Report Describes Devastating “Excess Deaths” in Nursing Homes
An Associated Press analysis of 15,000 nursing homes across the United States found that the Covid-19 pandemic may have resulted in as many as 40,000 excess deaths—that is, premature deaths from causes other than Covid-19. Experts suggested to the AP that nursing home residents may have died of neglect as overworked staffers tended to residents […]
Buffalo Community Healthcare Center Cited for Pressure Ulcers, Elopement
Buffalo Community Healthcare Center has received 82 citations for violations of public health code between 2017 and 2021, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on October 1, 2021. The facility has also received four fines totaling $26,000 since 2017. The Buffalo nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of 10 inspections […]
The Grand Rehabilitation and Nursing at Barnwell Cited for Pressure Ulcers
The Grand Rehabilitation and Nursing at Barnwell received 66 citations for violations of public health code between 2017 and 2021, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on September 17, 2021. It has also received eight fines totaling $78,000 since 2012. The Valatie nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of 17 […]
Bombshell Report: “Phony” Diagnoses Behind Nursing Home Druggings
Nursing homes are over-diagnosing patients with schizophrenia in order to conceal the high rates at which they’re prescribing antipsychotic medications, according to a recent report by the New York Times. Schizophrenia diagnoses among nursing home residents have “soared” as much as 70% since the federal government started making public disclosures of antipsychotic drug prescriptions in […]
NY Congregational Nursing Center Cited Twice for Abuse
NY Congregational Nursing Center received 19 citations for violations of public health code between 2017 and 2021, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on August 27, 2021. The Brooklyn nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of five surveys by state inspectors. The violations they describe include the following: 1. The nursing […]
NY Assemblyman: Hold For-Profit Nursing Homes Accountable
A report released last year by New York Assemblyman Ron Kim examined the thousands of deaths from Covid-19 in the state’s nursing homes in an attempt to identify underlying problems that caused the raft of fatalities and what can be done to address those problems. The report, published by Kim’s office in July 2020, is […]
Emerge Nursing and Rehabilitation at Glen Cove Cited for Accidents
Emerge Nursing and Rehabilitation at Glen Cove received 14 citations for violations of public health code between 2017 and 2021, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on August 14, 2021. The Glen Cove nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of five surveys by state inspectors. The violations they describe include the […]
Gowanda Rehabilitation & Nursing Cited for Pressure Ulcer, Fall
Gowanda Rehabilitation & Nursing Center received 28 citations for violations of public health code between 2017 and 2021, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on August 14, 2021. The Long Beach nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of six surveys by state inspectors. The violations they describe include the following: 1. […]
Troy Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing Cited for Medication Errors
Troy Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing received 45 citations for violations of public health code between 2017 and 2021, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on August 14, 2021. The Troy nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of six surveys by state inspectors. The violations they describe include the following: 1. […]
Report: Nursing Home Understaffing Persists in Q1 2021
The majority of nursing homes in the United States failed to meet minimum care staff thresholds in the first quarter of 2021, according to an analysis by the Long Term Community Care Coalition. A federal study published in 2001 established that minimum threshold as 4.10 total care staff hours per resident day (HRPD) and 0.75 […]
Report: Cuomo Covid Order Increased Nursing Home Deaths
A report published by the New York State Bar Association Task Force on Nursing Homes and Long-Term Care, obtained and described by the New York Post, found that a controversial order by Governor Andrew Cuomo resulted in additional nursing home deaths from Covid-19. The March 2020 order required nursing homes to admit patients with Covid-19, […]
Report Questions Unused PPE Stores at Queens Nursing Home
New York State Veterans Home in St. Albans, Queens has reportedly left “1,000 boxes of PPE outside under a blue tarp for months,” leaving the supplies vulnerable to the elements, according to a recent report by THE CITY. The personal protective equipment includes medical gowns and other supplies, much of which has reportedly “been rendered […]