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Lack Of Testing Obscures True Scale Of Coronavirus Impact On NY Nursing Homes
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Apr 14, 2020
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Lev Radin/Pacific Press/Shutterstock
By
Jake Offenhartz
Published Apr 14, 2020
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At least 2,200 residents of nursing homes across New York State have now died from COVID-19, a jump of nearly 1,000 fatalities in the span of just five days, according to data provided by the New York State Department of Health.
But like other official mortality figures, there’s reason to believe the actual number of fatalities is significantly higher than the reported totals.
According to nursing home operators and employees, a staggering number of residents are dying from apparent cases of the new coronavirus, even as testing remains largely unavailable in the facilities. The death toll released by the state accounts only for those who tested positive for COVID-19, a Health Department spokesperson confirmed.
The discrepancy has added to the anguish and confusion shouldered by the families of nursing home residents, who are already barred from visiting loved ones under a state order.
Carl Ferdinand, a Queens resident, says he has been trying for days to obtain an autopsy for his 89-year-old mother Erma, who passed away suddenly at the Chapin Home for the Aging last Saturday.
“The death certificate says she had heart disease, but she never had any heart problems,” said Ferdinand. “We don’t want to bury her not knowing what she died from.”
Because of a severe bottleneck at local funeral homes, his mother's body was left in the facility for three days, Ferdinand said. When the family was able to visit, they found her corpse was frail, with “raw, deep” bed sores on her back that suggested to them that she had been neglected at the end of her life.
“We are in a desperate situation trying to get to the bottom of this,” the grieving son told Gothamist. “I brought her here [from Guyana] because I wanted to take care of her. I wanted to give her a better life.”
Calls placed to the Chapin Home were not returned.
While COVID-19 has spread rapidly through nursing homes across the country, the death toll has been particularly stark in New York City. A total of 1,344 nursing home residents have died after testing positive for the virus, according to the DOH. Queens has led all boroughs with 440 recorded deaths, followed by the Bronx with 366 and Brooklyn with 271.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has so far declined to name the nursing homes where COVID-19 is present, citing privacy concerns. The Department of Health has also refused to share data on the total number of nursing home deaths, which could provide a window into the extent of the undercounting.
As families and residents say they’ve been left in the dark about the scope of the crisis, some nursing home operators are raising concerns that inaction from the state and federal government has accelerated the deadly ravages of the virus.
Scott LaRue, the CEO of ArchCare, which runs five nursing homes with a total of 1,700 beds, told Gothamist he has “literally been begging” for additional testing resources and personal protective equipment for staff and patients. On Easter morning, the company lost its second caregiver to COVID-19 — a nurse’s aide with nearly two decades of experience. Two other workers are in intensive care.
“Nursing home residents and the people who are putting their lives on the line to care for them are dying in large part because of the lack of tests and the inability to provide staff with proper PPE because the federal government hasn’t nationalized the supply chain and nursing homes continue to be seen as lower priority than hospitals,” LaRue wrote in an emailed statement.
Representatives for the state health department, which licenses the state’s 613 nursing homes, defended their oversight of the facilities, while claiming they’ve worked diligently to fulfill PPE requests.
“We've said from the start that protecting our most vulnerable populations including people in nursing homes is our top priority and that's why the State acted quickly and aggressively to issue guidance specifically for these facilities on testing, infection control, environmental cleaning, staffing, visitation, admission, readmission, and outreach to residents and families,” agency spokesperson Jeffrey Hammond wrote to Gothamist in a statement.
Hammond added that every nursing home with a suspected or positive case of COVID-19 is investigated by the state, either through a site visit, phone call or video assessment.
But healthcare workers say they’ve seen little evidence of such investigations, even as they’ve tried to bring attention to the suffering of patients inside their facilities.
At Fairview Rehab & Nursing Home, where employees have previously detailed alarming conditions such as shortages of medicine and staff, workers said they’ve heard nothing to suggest the facility has received additional scrutiny.
Inquiries to Fairview, which is operated by the embattled Klein Family Foundation, were not returned.
One nurse, who asked for anonymity because she feared retaliation from her employer, said Fairview had run out of room to properly store the dozens of patients who’ve succumbed to the virus in recent weeks. Some bodies have been wrapped in sheets and placed inside a women's locker room, where they’ve been sitting since last week, she said.
“The ones who died here were not tested,” the nurse added. “We know it’s because of the virus because it’s people who’ve been here for years who suddenly cannot breathe. They die very quickly.”
Tagged
COVID-19
Governor Andrew Cuomo
coronavirus
nursing home
Jake Offenhartz
Jake Offenhartz is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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