ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) – Hidden cameras have pierced the hard-to-investigate world of nursing-home neglect, leading to the arrests of 19 employees and a civil action against an owner after patients were left in their own waste while some staffers watched movies, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said Thursday.
The investigations prompted a consumer report released Thursday that serves as a starting point for patients and their families to evaluate staffing levels at homes statewide. The report is accessible through the attorney general’s Web site, www.oag.state.ny.us.
The arrests involved employees of the Jennifer Matthew Nursing Home in Rochester and the Northwoods Nursing Home in Cortland. In addition, Spitzer leveled civil charges against the primary owner and operator of the Rochester facility, Anthony Salerno, and a consulting company he owns called Healthcare Associates.
Spitzer said he is trying to recover state Medicaid funds for care that he argues wasn’t provided. He said the home has received $10 million in Medicaid funds over the last several years.
In 2002, the state provided $608,484 to the Jennifer Matthews facility as part of a statewide grant program covering pay raises and training for “quality care and to recruit and retain a highly trained work force,” according to the state announcement. Spitzer said he will look into that, too.
Meanwhile, the attorney general said the hidden cameras found a patient in the Rochester home and other residents hadn’t been repositioned to avoid bed sores and were often left for hours to lie in their own urine and waste. He also said medications and treatments were not provided as prescribed.
Staff had moved call bells away from patients and stopped doing their rounds so they could socialize, watch movies, sleep or leave the building, Spitzer said. Some employees were also accused of falsely filing records that claimed they provided required care.
The cameras were placed in patients’ rooms with their relatives’ consent.
“Very often the problem we encounter in abuse cases and neglect cases in the nursing home context is that you have an infirmed or frail witness whose testimony is set up against, often, more powerful and compelling witnesses on the other side,” Spitzer said.
“And often those witnesses who want to testify about neglect and abuse often feel intimidated because they have been in, and often continue to be in, the home where the abuse occurred,” Spitzer said. “This is a new paradigm, in a way, for prosecution of these cases.”
Eight former licensed and certified workers who were employed at Jennifer Matthew have pleaded guilty to charges involving neglect and filing false records.
A spokesman for the facility said he hadn’t seen Spitzer’s court filings and had no comment.
At Northwoods, Spitzer accused five employees of felony falsifying records and misdemeanor neglect and endangerment. The owner operator wasn’t accused of civil charges, but Spitzer said his investigation of the facility continues.
Northwoods Administrator Dorothy Zegarelli said the state Health Department investigated complaints from the same patient earlier last year and “was unable to substantiate any allegations made.” She also said the facility doesn’t know enough about Spitzer’s claims to comment, noting the findings weren’t shared with the home until October.
“In light of the allegations made by the Attorney General’s Office, Northwoods at Cortland has designed and implemented a comprehensive program for the retraining of its nursing staff,” Zegarelli said in a prepared statement. “This supplements the ongoing nursing education program that Northwoods already had in place.”
The statement also said: “We believe that our nursing staff do a wonderful job each and every day.”
The Jennifer Matthews nursing home was placed on “Immediate Jeopardy” notice this summer by the state Health Department.
Investigations continue into other nursing homes statewide.
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To report nursing home abuse, neglect 866-NYS-FIGHT
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On the Web: http://www.oag.state.ny.us
AP-ES-01-05-06 1806EST
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