ALBANY – New York Attorney General Letitia James released a landmark report on Thursday that found the state Department of Health underreported coronavirus-related deaths in nursing homes by up to 50 percent.
The 76-page report released Thursday morning after a months-long investigation by the attorney general’s office on allegations of patient negligence and other conduct that endangered the health and safety of residents and staff, including information from that nursing homes did not adequately isolate residents who tested positive for COVID-19 and required sick employees continue to work or face retaliation or dismissal.
In addition to the insufficient death count by the health department, the investigation also found that households’ lack of compliance with infection control protocols put residents at risk, and facilities that had lower pre-pandemic personnel ratings had lower rates. higher COVID-19 mortality rates. James’s office continues to investigate the allegations, including further examination of the practices in more than 20 nursing homes, where the reported conduct “was of particular concern”.
“As the pandemic and our investigations continue, it is imperative that we understand why nursing home residents in New York have suffered unnecessarily at such an alarming rate,” said James in a statement releasing the report. “Although we cannot bring back the individuals we lost in this crisis, this report seeks to provide the transparency that the public deserves and to encourage increased action to protect our most vulnerable residents.”
In early March 2020, the office began receiving complaints of COVID-related negligence, and on April 23, the attorney general set up a hotline to receive abuse and negligence complaints. According to James’s office, the hotline received 770 complaints by 3 August and another 179 complaints by 16 November.
The in-depth investigations in specific nursing homes are the result of preliminary findings that include:
- Insufficient personal protective equipment for the nursing home staff.
- Insufficient COVID-19 testing for residents and staff during the early stages of the pandemic, which placed residents at greater risk of harm.
- The state’s current reimbursement model provides financial incentives for profit-making nursing home owners to transfer funds to related parties instead of investing in higher levels of staff and equipment, rather than increasing their financial results.
- Lack of compliance with the nursing home with an executive order that requires communication with family members.
The report also found that the March New York guideline requiring admission of COVID-19 patients to nursing homes may have increased the risk of other people at the assembled facilities contracting the virus, a notion that an internal report commissioned by the state released in last year rejected it as a possibility.
Lawmakers and epidemiologists have been skeptical of the Department of Health report issued in July, which absolved Cuomo’s administration of the blame for thousands of deaths in nursing homes attributed to COVID-19. The report concluded that a controversial memo issued by the health agency in late March, when the pandemic grew, was not to blame. Instead, the report concluded that the deaths occurred because employees who worked in the homes had brought the infectious disease to the facility, months before, before the spread of the coronavirus in the state was known.
Since the report was released, lawmakers have called for an independent investigation into the matter, questioning the reliability of an internal review of state practices. In fact, lawmakers even questioned whether the attorney general’s office could be impartial in an investigation. Congressman Richard Gottfried contested the effectiveness of James’ office, considering that he works regularly with the health department and represents state agencies in lawsuits and other investigations.
The controversial memo issued by the DOH on March 25 banned nursing homes from denying residents admission or readmission based solely on a positive or suspicious COVID-19 diagnosis. If a COVID-19-positive patient in a hospital was clinically stable and needed care in a nursing home, many nursing homes believed that the directive required them to accept that person.
The DOH report last July – absolving itself of the blame for the deaths – said the findings were supported by the survey responses submitted to the asylum agency. Still, the DOH refused to provide the Times Union with the records of nursing homes that formed the basis of the July 6 report. DOH cited two exemptions in denying the Times Union’s request, but declined to say how those exemptions applied to the specific records requested.
The number of deaths reported by the state does not include residents who were infected, transferred to hospitals and later died.
The Empire Center for Public Policy, a fiscally conservative think tank in Albany, filed a lawsuit seeking to force the Department of Health to provide information on deaths in hospitals, which the think tank is readily available in daily “HERDS” surveys that are filled by nursing homes and sent to the state.
The health department said in continuous responses to the Empire Center’s request that delays are inevitable, as it is involved in a months-long “diligent search” for the material.
Data requests were bipartisan. Democratic state senator James Skoufis, chairman of the House Investigations Committee, warned on Monday that he would support the use of subpoena power to get answers about the deaths of the COVID-19 nursing home before a February 3 hearing. The next day, the health budget hearing was rescheduled from February 3 to 25, at the request of the governor’s office.