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Westchester Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing received 40 citations for violations of public health laws between 2015 and 2019, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on November 14, 2019. That figure is eight greater than the statewide average of 32. The Mount Vernon nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of three inspections by state surveyors. The violations they describe include the following:

1. The nursing home did not meet quality of care standards. Section 483.25 of the Federal Code states that nursing homes must ensure that residents “receive treatment and care in accordance with professional standards of practice” and based on comprehensive assessments of each individual. According to a July 17, 2019 inspection, the nursing home did not ensure proper treatment and care for three residents. An inspector found that one resident did not receive “timely treatment and care for complaints of pain” resulting from their fall from a lift; another did not receive timely treatment and care for a bedsore/pressure ulcer on their left heel; and a third was not provided prompt medication, per a physician’s orders, for their “critically elevated potassium levels.” The citation describes these failures as resulting in the “potential to cause more than minimal harm” to residents.

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Williamsbridge Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing received 29 citations for violations of public health laws between 2015 and 2019, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on November 14, 2019. These citations include one that authorities determined to reflect “a severe, systemic deficiency.” The Bronx nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of four inspections by state authorities. The violations they describe include the following:

1. The nursing home did not provide an environment free of accident hazards. Under Section 483.25 of the Federal Code, nursing home facilities are required to provide an environment as free as possible from accident hazards, and to provide proper supervision to prevent accidents. A citation issued on April 23, 2019 found that the nursing home failed to adequately supervise a resident with a history of attempted elopement, who eloped from the facility on April 5, 2019. According to the citation, the resident was not accounted for during an 11 AM head count, and the nursing home did not launch a search for the resident until 2:30 PM. As of the date of the citation, the resident’s whereabouts remained unknown. The Department of Health found that this failure resulted in “immediate jeopardy to resident health or safety” and reflected a systemic deficiency.

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Beth Abraham Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing received 30 citations for violations of public health laws between 2015 and 2019, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on November 14, 2019. The Bronx nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of five inspections by state surveyors. The violations they describe include the following:

1. The nursing home did not properly ensure the prevention and control of infection. Under Section 483.80 of the Federal Code, nursing home facilities “must establish and maintain an infection prevention and control program designed to provide a safe, sanitary and comfortable environment and to help prevent the development and transmission of communicable diseases and infections.” During a May 2019 inspection, a surveyor observed a Licensed Practical Nurse “performing blood pressure monitoring for 3 residents without cleaning the blood pressure cuff between residents”; another LPN administering eye drop medication without maintaining “proper hand hygiene”; and a third LPN failing to maintain proper hand hygiene while completing a wound care observation.

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The Citadel Rehab and Nursing Center at Kingsbridge received 19 citations for violations of public health laws between 2015 and 2019, according to New York State Department of Health records accessed on November 14, 2019. Those citations include two that were found to cause immediate jeopardy to resident health, and one that authorities say reflected “a severe, systemic deficiency.” The Bronx nursing home’s citations resulted from a total of five inspections by state authorities. The violations they describe include the following:

1. The nursing home did not ensure it provided an environment free of accident hazards. Under Section 483.25 of the Federal Code, nursing home facilities are required to provide residents with an environment as free as possible from accident hazards, and with proper supervision and assistive devices to prevent accidents. An August 2016 citation states that an inspector observed more than 50 beds with siderails whose measurements “exceeded the FDA recommendation that spaces between the bed siderail bars should be no larger than 4 3/4 inches.” While the Department of Health inspector found that this deficiency had so far not resulted in actual harm, it had “the potential for more than minimal harm that was immediate jeopardy and substandard quality of care.”

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The Senate Finance Committee examined the “crisis” of nursing home abuse in an emotional hearing this month. Families of abused nursing home patients told their tragic stories and frustrations with the lack of government oversight. In one of the testimonies before the Senators, Maya Fischer tearily detailed the sexual assault her mother suffered at a five-star rated nursing home in Minnesota. According to prosecutors who later charged a nursing home staffer for the rape, the predator had been suspended three times by the nursing home while they investigated sexual assault allegations. In two of these instances, the nursing home staffer who attacked Fischer’s mother was the main suspect.

Fischer described her “final memories of my mother’s life… watching her bang uncontrollably on her private parts for days after the rape, with tears rolling down her eyes, apparently trying to tell me what had been done to her but unable to speak due to her disease.” According to CNN, Fischer’s mother suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. Fischer says she is now speaking out to prevent her family’s tragedy from occurring to anyone else.

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All nursing homes that receive more than $10,000 are required by federal law to report any suspicion of crimes against their elderly residents. While there have been reporting problems, the Department of Health and Human Services has vowed to increase enforcement of these federal regulations.

The mandatory reporting requirement, originally a part of the Affordable Care Act, more colloquially known as Obamacare, has two main provisions – both of which carry heftier fines as of November 28, 2017. A violation of these laws can result in a fine of up to $221,000. If the failure to report the suspected crime results in more harm to the resident, the fine increases to $331,000. The assisted living facility will also be fined for retaliating against any employee or resident that reports a suspected crime. The maximum fine allowable for a retaliatory measure is $221,000. Continue reading

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Three nursing home employees in Nassau County have been arrested in connection with the death of nursing home resident at A. Holly Patterson Extended Care Facility.  Registered nurses, Sijimole Reji and Annieamma Augustine and certified nurse aide, Martine Morland were charged with neglect and endangerment of a resident. The patient relied on a mechanical ventilator to breathe and was completely dependent on the facility’s staff.

On December 20, 2015, the wheelchair bound resident became disconnected from her ventilator, setting off audio and visual alarms to alert staff of a life-threatening situation. The three employees were at the nursing station when the alarms sounded, however they did not immediately respond. Staff ignalarm-300x200ored the resident’s alarm for over nine minutes before they attempted to provide assistance to the patient. The resident was found unresponsive and unconscious; she was then transferred to Nassau University Medical Center, where she died the next day. Continue reading

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Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced new agreements with Auburn Community Hospital in Auburn, New York and Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital in Binghamton, New York, which will assist in supporting equal access to healthcare in terms of language assistance and financial aid, as both hospitals aid diverse communities.  Implementing new policies will ensure that hospital services are available to all regardless of limited English proficiency or an inability to pay.

According to the 2013 Census, roughly two and a half million New Yorkers did not speak English as their primary language and have a restricted ability to read, write, or understand English.  Binghamton, New York has a population of 44,562 over the age of five, 13.7% of whom speak a language other than English as their primary language and 5.4% who do not speak English “very well”.  2013 Census records also suggest that 10.1% of Binghamton’s population did not have health insurance and demonstrated that between 2012 and 2013, 33.3% of Binghamton residents lived under the federal poverty level. The 2013 Census figures for Auburn, New York demonstrated that 6.9% of its residents do not speak English as their primary language and 2.8 % speak English less than “very well.” Auburn residents who had no health insurance constituted 11.3% of the city’s population, while 20.0% were living under the federal poverty level. Continue reading

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