Letitia James, the Attorney General for the state of New York, released a preliminary report on nursing homes and COVID. The report is deeply troubling on so many levels. There are the usual nursing home issues with cleanliness, staffing, and lack of equipment. However, the pandemic exacerbated those deficiencies. In addition, the report includes two additional disturbing behaviors:
- A larger number of nursing home residents died from COVID-19 than New York’s Department of Health’s data reflected.
The nursing homes did not report COVID-related deaths for their COVID-infected residents who were sent to hospitals and died there — an understatement estimated at about 50%.The data nursing homes furnished to the Office of Attorney General investigators were different from the data reported to the DOH.
Investigators were unable to find explanations for all of the discrepancies.
2. Government guidance requiring the admission of COVID-19 patients into nursing homes may have put residents at increased risk of harm in some facilities and may have obscured the data available to assess that risk. The relevant order from New York’s Department of Health provided:
“[n]o resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the nursing home solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19. Nursing homes are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or re-admission.” DOH, Advisory: Hospital Discharges and Admissions to Nursing Homes, March 25, 2020
The March 25th order put those with COVID-19 into homes occupied by those most vulnerable to the disease. Every death diminishes us. These deaths should cause us to hang our heads in shame. However, the governor of New York, who issued the order, has instead received an Emmy and a book contract for his “leadership” in handling the COVID crisis in New York. Perhaps the better measurement of society would be how it treats those who harm the most vulnerable.