From USA Today:
“New York
COVID-19 nursing home deaths undercounted by as much as 50%, state AG
investigation finds”
A probe by the
New York Attorney General's Office found COVID-19 deaths of nursing home
residents in the state may have been undercounted by as much as 50% as poor
infection-control practices and understaffing fueled the coronavirus crisis
inside the long-term care facilities. The bombshell investigation reported the
state Department of Health's controversial policy to only publicly report
COVID-19 deaths of residents inside nursing homes and withhold deaths of
residents transferred to hospitals hindered attempts to improve conditions
inside the facilities.
The true
COVID-19 death toll of New York nursing home residents is closer to 13,000, as
opposed to the 8,677 reported to date by the state Department of Health,
according to the investigation's findings. Nursing homes might have also
undercounted their deaths to the state, the report said. “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,” Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “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," she added.
What the
investigation found The investigation also revealed that nursing homes’
lack of compliance with infection-control protocols put residents at increased
risk of harm, and facilities that had lower pre-pandemic staffing ratings had
higher COVID-19 fatality rates. Based on the findings and subsequent
investigation, James is conducting ongoing probes into more than 20 nursing
homes whose reported conduct during the first wave of the pandemic presented
particular concern. State Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker has
refused to release the number of nursing home residents who died due to
COVID-19 after being transferred to a hospital, which experts suggested could
add thousands of deaths. Zucker pledged in August to release the
information once it could be confirmed as accurate, but that has not happened.
Due to recent changes in state law, it remains unclear to what extent
facilities or individuals can be held accountable if found to have failed to
appropriately protect the residents in their care, James said.
On March 23,
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers created limited immunity provisions
for health care providers relating to COVID-19, James said. The Emergency
Disaster Treatment Protection Act provides immunity to health care
professionals from potential liability arising from certain decisions, actions
and omissions related to the care of individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic. New
York State Attorney General Letitia James is seeking transparency when it comes
to the number of COVID-19 deaths reported in her state's nursing homes. While
it is reasonable to provide some protections for health care workers making
impossible health care decisions in good faith during an unprecedented public
health crisis, it would not be appropriate or just for nursing home owners to
interpret the action as providing blanket immunity for causing harm to
residents, James said. James recommended eliminating the newly enacted immunity
provisions to ensure no one can evade potential accountability. The state
Legislature in July passed a bill signed by Cuomo to limit the scope of
immunity for health care providers, but advocates said more revisions are
needed. Milly Silva, executive vice president for the 1199SEIU union
representing many nursing home workers, praised the investigation for
confirming workers' complaints about poor conditions in nursing homes. “Now is
the time for Albany to enact bold reform, as neighboring states have done, to
ensure that taxpayer dollars are directed to resident care, not excessive
profit, and that there is sufficient staff to meet resident needs," Silva
said in a statement. "Our state’s vulnerable nursing home residents and
those that care for them deserve no less,” he added. There was no immediate
comment from Cuomo's administration on the report's findings.
Investigators
with the Office of the New York Attorney General analyzed COVID-19 deaths for
62 nursing homes, or roughly 10% of facilities statewide, to estimate the
severity of the state's undercount at the fatalities, the report shows. Using
the data from the 62 nursing homes, the probe compared in-facility deaths
reported to investigators to in-facility deaths publicized by the state, as
well as total deaths reported to investigators to total deaths publicized by
the state. That formula concluded the publicly reported death toll was
undercounted by as much as 50%, but an investigation is continuing into the
reasons for the discrepancies, the report added. The findings were seized on by
a bipartisan group of state and federal lawmakers, many of who had for months
railed against how Cuomo handled the virus' spread in nursing homes. Republican
state Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt called on Zucker to resign. "By
underreporting COVID deaths in nursing homes by as much as 50%, the Department
of Health has betrayed the public trust," Ortt said in a statement. Democrats
also knocked the Cuomo administration, calling for independent investigations
and greater accountability by his office. State Assemblyman Ron Kim, D-Queens,
said New York "has committed a human rights violation by choosing to
protect nursing home profits over the safety of older adults and vulnerable
members." He called for the state to form a nonpartisan commission with
subpoena power to investigate what happened at the nursing homes. "The
Governor handed out blanket immunity to corporate executives which cost lives
and brought undue pain and suffering," Kim said in a statement. "It
is a business model soaked in blood."
^ My 94 year
old Grandmother is in a Nursing Home in New York. I have been posting about
NY's (especially that of Gov. Cuomo's) horrible treatment of Nursing Home
residents since March 2020 and it seems I was right. Gov. Cuomo had to be sued to even have an
American Sign Language Interpreter in his daily Covid News Briefings (3 of my 4
local TV Channels are in New York/Vermont and so carried them every day) even
though it has been the Federal Law - the ADA - since 1990. A man like that doesn't care about the
elderly, the sick or the disabled - only about grooming himself to would-be
hipsters in New York City so they will vote for him. ^
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.