Table of Content
- Countries
- Undercounting deaths
- Your County’s Risk
- New York undercounted nursing home deaths by as much 50 percent, report finds
- Attorney general on nursing homes: Investigations reveal DOH publicly reported data undercounted COVID-19 deaths
- — News —
- Facility fatality rates are much higher than the national average
Nursing homes have become a particular sore point for the Cuomo administration, which has generally received praise for steps that flattened the curve of infections and New York’s highest-in-the-nation 32,787 overall deaths. “New York Attorney General Letitia James’ report finally shows what we have all suspected for months. Gov. Cuomo and his administration could be complicit in a cover-up of the true effects of this disastrous decision.
Many facilities also demanded infected employees continue to come to work or face retaliation or termination, according to the report, which also found that nursing homes that entered the pandemic with lower federal scores for staffing experienced higher COVID-19 death rates than homes with higher ratings. To be sure, comparing coronavirus deaths in nursing homes across states can be difficult because of the differences in how states conduct their counts. New York is among several states that include probable COVID-19 deaths as well as those confirmed by a test. And all ultimately rely on the nursing homes themselves to provide the raw data.
Countries
In fact, the OAG found nursing home resident deaths appear to be undercounted by DOH by approximately 50%. Since May, federal regulators have required nursing homes to submit data on coronavirus deaths each week, whether or not residents died in the facility or at a hospital. Because the requirement came after the height of New York’s outbreak, the available data is relatively small. According to the federal data, roughly a fifth of the state’s homes reported resident deaths from early June to mid July — a tally of 323 dead, 65 percent higher than the state’s count of 195 during that time period. The OAG's report is only referring to the count of people who were in nursing homes but transferred to hospitals and later died.
The staggering toll is one of the most tragic aspects of the pandemic in New York and in nursing homes and senior care centers across the country. A report by the New York State Health Department listed 55 deaths presumably caused by the coronavirus at the facility since the outbreak began, the highest toll at any senior care center in New York. The New York attorney general on Thursday accused the state of drastically undercounting Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes, saying in a stinging new rebuke of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration that the official tally of about 8,500 may be off by as much as 50 percent. During the initial outset of the pandemic, Cuomo received accolades for his response to COVID-19. His name was floated as a possible replacement of Joe Biden as the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee due to his newfound popularity.
Undercounting deaths
Nursing home populations are at a high risk of being infected by — and dying from — the coronavirus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, is known to be particularly lethal to adults in their 60s and older who have underlying health conditions. And it can spread more easily through congregate facilities, where many people live in a confined environment and workers move from room to room. In California and New York, Topol said, hospitalizations for seniors with COVID-19 have already surpassed those during spring and summer omicron waves. The facility also tried to move some residents suspected of carrying the virus to the military field hospital set up at New York City's Jacob Javits Convention Center.
The audit also criticized the DOH for not collectively analyzing on a routine basis the multiple data sources it has to respond more effectively to an infectious disease outbreak. A review by the Times found that Amsterdam Nursing Home was cited seven times in the past six years for rules violations ranging from not conducting routine maintenance to using inadequate start-up procedures for the towers. One infraction resulted in a $500 fine related to record keeping for water sample analysis, while the other six were dismissed after hearings. The failure of a cooling tower in the NYC nursing home allegedly allowed the disease to survive easier, leading to the outbreak that killed five patients. State Rep. Elise Stefanik, a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump, joined other Republicans in calling for the resignations of Cuomo and Zucker. That total put New York’s fatalities ahead of California’s by about 2,600, the Empire Center found.
Your County’s Risk
The 62 facilities reported 1,266 in-facility deaths to OAG between March 1 and sometime between April 12 to July 19, depending on when the facility responded. For the same time period, the DOH only publicized 1,229 in-facility deaths, a difference of 3%. As the OAG noted, while this discrepancy may seem low, “closer analysis revealed that some facilities reported the location of the person at the time of death inconsistently.” When removing those facilities, the discrepancy jumped to 18.66%. The true number of COVID-19 deaths from New York nursing homes during the state's initial surge could be 56 percent more than what the state health department is reporting, according to a report released Thursday by the state's attorney general. Ultimately, the OAG's report demonstrates that the recurring problems in nursing homes and by facility operators resulted from a complete abdication by the Trump administration of its duty to manage this pandemic.
Even if half that undercount had held true from the start of the pandemic, that would translate into thousands more nursing home resident deaths than the state has acknowledged. The report also found operators in direct violation of the executive order requiring nursing homes to communicate with family members in real time when there was a COVID-19 infection or death in the facility . For instance, OAG received a complaint that at a for-profit nursing home located north of New York City, residents who tested positive for COVID-19 were intermingled with the general population for several months because the facility had not yet created a “COVID-19 only” unit. Aside from the coronavirus, nursing home infections can devastate populations. The fact that some nursing homes were unable to administer vital infection safety measures is unacceptable.
OAG also continued to receive allegations of COVID-19-related neglect of residents through preexisting reporting systems. On March 11, 2021, the New York legislature launched an impeachment inquiry into Cuomo, both for his role in undercounting nursing home deaths and for several sexual harassment allegations recently reported against him. At that point, 59 Democrats within the Senate and Assembly had signed onto a statement demanding Cuomo's resignation.
In the last week, the U.S. has seen a record-high number of positive flu tests. Around three quarters of the nation's pediatric hospital beds are full as RSV remains a top concern. The possible strike comes as New York prepares for a possible "tripledemic", as COVID-19, flu and RSV cases continue to fill the state's hospitals. "It's very unfortunate because during the height of the pandemic, we nurses saved New York, without any proper PPE. We put everybody ahead of us." Hagans says their members are frustrated with the pace and progress of negotiations, saying all they are asking for are fair wages, quality health benefits nurses and safe working conditions.
The nurses are beginning to vote on whether to authorize a strike if a new agreement is not reached. An earlier version of this article misstated the formula for case fatality rate. It is the number of deaths divided by the number of cases, not the number of cases divided by the number of deaths. At NYU Langone Health, chief hospital epidemiologist Dr. Michael Phillips said a growing number of seniors are being admitted to his hospital with COVID-19.
Representative Antonio Delgado from New York's 19th congressional district also called for an investigation into Cuomo, saying those who lost loved ones "deserve answers and accountability". Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York's 14th congressional district stated, “I support our state’s return to co-equal governance and stand with our local officials calling for a full investigation of the Cuomo administration’s handling of nursing homes during COVID-19." Then in January, Ms. James reported that the administration had undercounted virus-related deaths of nursing home residents by several thousand. Hours later, the Health Department added more than 3,800 such deaths to its tally. As politicians, health experts and federal investigators called for complete figures for the deaths of nursing home residents, the Cuomo administration continued to delay the data’s release, saying more time was need to compile and verify it. Cuomo has insisted that it was up to the nursing homes to alert state health officials if they were not equipped to take care of infected residents.
The audit also found the health department failed to report more than 50% of the nursing home deaths from April 15 through May 2, 2020. The Times’s numbers are based on official confirmations from states, counties and the facilities themselves, as well as some data provided by the federal government. They include residents and, in cases in which reporting is available, employees of the facilities. Given the wide variability in the type of information available, the totals shown here almost certainly represent an undercount of the true toll. Infected people linked to nursing homes also die at a higher rate than the general population.
He said they see many more hospitalizations among people who are unvaccinated. As nursing home leaders redouble efforts to get staff and residents boosted with the new vaccine version, now recommended for those 6 months and older, they face complacency, misinformation and COVID-19 fatigue. They are calling on the White House for help with an “all hands on deck” approach. In Brooklyn, several dozen residents who lined the street outside and clapped and cheered the nursing home staff members seemed to understand that they have been doing everything they can under enormously difficult circumstances.
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