Nursing Home Malpractice Continues to Violate Veterans’ Rights in New Jersey State-Run Veteran Homes

The poor care and incidence of nursing home malpractice that allowed two New Jersey veterans homes to fall victim to widespread COVID-19 outbreaks early in the pandemic have not been remedied, say federal investigators.

A recent Department of Justice investigation has revealed that hygiene and infection control violations continue to persist in two New Jersey veterans nursing homes where COVID-19 was permitted to run rampant early in 2020, says a CNN article. The Paramus and Menlo Park Veterans Memorial Homes logged the highest and fourth-highest number of nursing home resident deaths from COVID-19 in the state by October of 2020, prompting a federal investigation. Inspectors in 2020 found evidence of nursing home malpractice that was determined to have directly promoted the deadly spread of the coronavirus in the homes. According to the CNN article, the newly-released DOJ report finds that these deficiencies are ongoing.

The 2020 DOJ investigation found that Paramus and Menlo Park staff failed in such basic COVID-19 protocols as proper hand washing, disinfection of common areas and bedrooms, and the isolation of residents sick with Covid. Menlo Park was in particular reported to have filthy nursing stations and insect infestations.

The new investigation says that the homes continue to violate veteran residents’ right to reasonable care and safety (as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment) through the following ongoing instances of nursing home malpractice:

• Neglecting to properly train staff: Nursing home residents have the right to expect proper care from staff; untrained workers constitute nursing home malpractice.
• Failure to comply with basic COVID-19 infection control protocols (e.g. testing, contact tracing, isolation of infected residents): Not following protocols to prevent or contain the spread of infections puts highly vulnerable residents at risk of becoming deathly ill, a clear example of nursing home malpractice.
• Failure to implement wound prevention procedures: Protocols exist to prevent the development of wounds like pressure ulcers. Not following proper prevention procedures puts residents at risk for developing pressure wounds, which is a common incidence of nursing home malpractice.
• Neglecting proper wound care: Wounds like bedsores, if left to deteriorate, can lead to serious infections, sepsis, and even death, likely requiring the services of a wrongful death attorney.
• Failure to implementing policies to prevent or respond to nursing home falls: Nursing home falls are frequently preventable, and not employing policies to prevent falls equals nursing home malpractice; furthermore, falls are a leading cause of nursing home deaths, which may require the involvement of a wrongful death attorney.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy called the report is “a deeply disturbing reminder that the treatment received by our heroic veterans is unacceptable and, quite frankly, appalling.”

Holding Homes Responsible for Nursing Home Malpractice

Brian P. Murphy, an experienced nursing home malpractice and wrongful death attorney, has dedicated his personal injury practice to protecting Philadelphia/PA and NJ nursing home residents from neglect and elder abuse. Vulnerable elderly residents of Philadelphia/PA or NJ nursing homes should not have to live in fear of being subjected to abuse or neglect or any type of nursing home malpractice. Brian Murphy takes on Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and New Jersey nursing homes for egregious acts of elder abuse, especially any incidence of nursing home malpractice that causes wrongful death. Attorney Brian Murphy is ready to discuss your legal options. If you or your loved one needs to contact a nursing home malpractice and wrongful death attorney, call Brian Murphy today.

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Families Sue Nursing Home due to Negligence in Death from COVID: The lawsuit alleges nursing home neglect led to the rampant infection of the coronavirus that caused their loved ones’ wrongful death.

A new lawsuit brought by 16 families of loved ones who died during a 2020 surge of COVID-19 at a New Jersey nursing home brings accusations of gross negligence, wrongful death, and medical malpractice, says an article in the New Jersey Herald. According to the article, the suit filed in Sussex County Superior Court in early April claims that the Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center and Limecrest Subacute and Rehabilitation Center (previously known as Andover Subacute & Rehabilitation I & II) could have prevented residents’ deaths by implementing nursing home infection protocols. The complaint also claims that medical services performed “negligently and carelessly” contributed to the wrongful deaths of the facility’s COVID patients.

The sister homes first came under scrutiny in early spring of 2020, when the bodies of 17 victims of COVID-19 were found crammed into a morgue meant for no more than four bodies. By April of that year, more than 90 residents had died at these facilities.

According to the article, the suit outlines the following examples of nursing home negligence that allowed for extensive nursing home COVID infections in the spring of 2020, as well as illustrations of medical malpractice that contributed to residents’ wrongful death:

• Failure to issue the proper PPE to employees, or to require masks for visitors, housekeepers, recreation therapists, or nursing assistants
• Permitting employees and visitors to enter the facility without first taking their temperature
• Failure of doctors, nurses, physician’s assistants, and nurse practitioners to sufficiently deliver ordinary care or exercise a degree of skill while caring for sick patients
• Failure of medical providers to make timely diagnoses of, or to properly treat, residents with COVID
• Failure of medical providers to provide explanations to residents infected with COVID of the risks posed to them or the options available to them

Woodland meanwhile faces a host of challenges related to quality-of-care non-compliance. In February federal officials placed the home in an “immediate jeopardy” situation when facility workers were found to have committed acts consistent with nursing home abuse and neglect that jeopardized residents’ lives. The home was already in danger of losing federal funding due to poor quality of care; actions made by Woodland to improve matters preserved both federal funding and the facility’s license for now, although the termination of a provider agreement by authorities may proceed if more actions aren’t taken.

Many families sue this nursing home due to negligence in death from COVID; beyond the 16 families named in the suit, 50 additional families seek to join as class members if the complaint is certified by a judge as class action, the article says. Meanwhile, two other lawsuits against Woodland remain active in Sussex County Superior Court.

Seeking to Secure Your Loved One’s Safety

Your loved one’s Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, or New Jersey nursing home is required to meet every criterion in matters of hygiene as well as all other qualifications for safety. If you’re concerned about the quality of a Philadelphia/PA or NJ facility or you suspect neglect or abuse has occurred at the Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, or New Jersey nursing home where your loved one lives, please contact nursing home abuse attorney Brian P. Murphy to discover your legal rights and options.

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Owners with a for-profit focus have left nursing homes vulnerable to COVID as they prioritize profit over quality operations. Nursing home owners poised their homes to fail during the coronavirus pandemic, says a recent article in the New York Times. Years of private-equity and private-investor ownership left for-profit nursing homes running on thin margins and with inadequately low staffing, rendering these homes incapable of protecting workers or residents when the coronavirus ravaged their facilities.

Over the last decade or so, anticipating a high demand for care from aging baby boomers and the influx of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, private equity and private investment firms began investing in nursing homes.  Now a large majority—nearly 70 percent—of American nursing homes are for-profit homes, and many of these are owned by private investors who manage to eke out a sizeable profit even as the homes lose money, fall into disrepair, and see quality care plummet.

According to the article, investors often create separate companies to hold the real estate of the nursing homes they acquire, a practice which enables them turn a profit in the following ways:

• Separating the more valuable real estate from the less valuable business protects assets against financial loss from lawsuits.
• Control over real estate enables investors to lease the building back to operators, to raise rents, and to charge high fees for management and consulting.
• Investors can require nursing homes to buy products or services (pharmaceuticals, ventilators, ambulance transport, etc.) from other companies they own.

One example of this involves Chicago investor William Rothner and one of the 60 nursing homes he has a stake in: Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center I and II, the COVID-ravaged New Jersey nursing home where 17 bodies were found. The home’s operator, Alliance Healthcare, faces fines of over $200,000 from federal health regulators; the fine could continue to grow unless problems (including a violation of infection control safety practices and pandemic guidances) are corrected. Meanwhile Rothner, owner of the home’s two buildings, leases them to Alliance Healthcare for about $8 million a year.

While investors make their profits, nursing home operators are meanwhile left with high bills, soaring liabilities, stalled occupancy, poor facilities, and below-average, highly inconsistent staffing. The result: for-profit homes consistently perform far worse than nonprofit homes in quality care; they also rack up violations more rapidly.  Statistics also show that, once nursing homes are taken over by private equity firms, nursing staff hours per patient drop 2.4 percent and staff quality falls 3.6 percent. It is no wonder that, once a global pandemic struck, these nursing homes were unable to manage or contain the crisis.

Meanwhile, the nursing home industry is seeking widespread immunity from COVID lawsuits, with 16 states offering this protection and legislation pending to extend such immunity countrywide.

Putting Your Loved One First

It is always important to ensure the Philadelphia/PA or NJ nursing home where your loved one lives has his or her best interests at heart. In such uncertain times as those presented by the coronavirus pandemic, securing the safety and well-being of Pennsylvania and New Jersey nursing home residents is more pressing than ever before. If the safety or quality of care of a Philadelphia/PA or NJ facility during COVID-19 concerns you, or if you suspect neglect, abuse, or fraud has occurred at the Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, or New Jersey nursing home where your loved one lives, please contact nursing home abuse attorney Brian P. Murphy to discover your legal rights and options.

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Facilities in Some States Have Secured Immunity from COVID-related Lawsuits

According to an Associated Press news article, as of May 4, New York and New Jersey are among 15 states in the nation so far to provide nursing homes with emergency protection against lawsuits related to the coronavirus pandemic. A lobbying effort is underway in other states to secure governors’ orders or have laws enacted to provide legal immunity to nursing homes and long-term care facilities. Meanwhile, nursing home abuse attorneys and patient advocates claim that these immunity measures interfere with efforts to hold facilities responsible for problems that existed long before COVID-19 ravaged the nation’s care centers.

At the time of the article’s publication, over 20,000 American nursing home deaths had occurred as a result of the coronavirus, and in their wake lies the potential for a deluge of lawsuits. Positing that the unprecedented circumstances presented by the pandemic resulted in situations beyond their control, the nursing home industry—led by New York, where the bulk of the nation’s nursing home coronavirus deaths have occurred—claims it should not be held liable for such problems as PPE and testing shortages, reduced staff, and inconsistent orders from authorities.

Generally, among the states that have secured it, the immunity provisions relate to care decisions, injuries, and death that took place during the crisis and were not the result of gross negligence or willful misconduct. However, claims Toby Edelman of the Center for Medicare Advocacy, negligence suits will become difficult to argue as a result of the immunity provisions, as facilities can claim substandard care was the result of the coronavirus outbreak.

“Everything can’t be blamed on COVID-19,” said Edelman. “Other things can happen that are terrible.” That the industry is lobbying for legal protection during a time when the government inspections meant to ensure the quality and competency of elder care have been reduced and when relatives of residents have no physical access to their loved ones is, says Edelman, troubling.

The AP article states that the majority of American nursing homes (70 percent) are operated by for-profit companies, and private-equity firms have purchased and sold hundreds of the country’s 15,000 facilities in the past few years. According to Mike Dark, a California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform attorney, the move by the industry to secure immunity is about the bottom line: it has “everything to do with protecting the financial interests of these big operators.”

In spite of the immunity measures, suggests the Associated Press, litigation against nursing homes is forthcoming. Lawyers will strive to hold facilities accountable for the following actions: ignoring test results,failing to notify residents and family members about COVID outbreaks, and disregarding federal directives to restrict visitation, terminate group activities, and screen workers.

Committed to Holding Negligent Nursing Facilities Accountable

Sometimes a crisis shines a light on issues that have gone undetected for far too long. In these critical times, it’s crucial to ensure that your loved one’s Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, or New Jersey nursing home meets every standard for quality care. It’s important to remember that under-staffing and poor facility conditions amount to neglect. If you’re concerned about the quality of a Philadelphia/PA or NJ facility or you suspect neglect or abuse has occurred at the Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, or New Jersey nursing home where your loved one lives, please contact nursing home abuse attorney Brian P. Murphy to discover your legal rights and options.

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Ravaged by COVID-19, Andover Nursing Home Overwhelmed by Deaths
17 Bodies Found at New Jersey Nursing Home

A recent New York Times article stated it was an anonymous tip that brought police to the Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center I and II in Andover, N.J., on April 13: a body had reportedly been placed in a shed outside the home. By the time of the police’s arrival, this body had been relocated; however, inside the home’s diminutive morgue—meant to hold no more than four bodies in advance of their removal to a funeral home—police found the bodies of 17 residents.

Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center, a long-term care facility comprised of two buildings and among the largest nursing homes in New Jersey, recently suffered the death of 68 people, including the 17. Of these 68 deaths, which also included two nurses, 26 were definitively linked to the coronavirus, with the remainder from unknown causes.

New Jersey has been hard hit with the illness, which, as evidenced by the outbreak in a Seattle Area nursing home, can spread like wildfire among the extremely vulnerable patients within the walls of nursing homes. The Times reported that, as of April 15, over 6,800 residents of New Jersey nursing homes have been infected. A New Jersey Herald article claims that, once the virus found its way into the Andover facility, complaints of understaffing, a lack of PPE, and poor infection control as well as a breakdown in communications among administration, staff, and family members regarding who was infected with—or even who might have died from—COVID-19, prompted investigations into the home that eventually led to the discovery and removal of the 17 bodies, 13 of them to a refrigerated truck outside the nearby Newton Medical Center, and the remainder to a funeral home.

Of those residents remaining within the facility, 76 have tested positive for COVID-19. Considering the potential for rapid spread of the virus to others within the 700-bed nursing home, panicked family members are clamoring for answers and action. According to the Times, the state Department of Health sent two shipments of 4,600 masks (including 1,400 N95 masks) and 10,000 gloves to the facility, which claims it is isolating sick residents on separate floors or in separate wings. Meanwhile, 41 staff members have contracted COVID-19, including one of the home’s administrators.

The Times claims that issues with staffing, patient care, and inspections within this nursing home existed even prior to the coronavirus pandemic, resulting in a “much below average” rating from Medicare.

Determining the Safety of Your Loved One’s Nursing Home

In these critical times, it’s crucial to ensure that your loved one’s Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, or New Jersey nursing home meets every criterion in matters of hygiene as well as all other qualifications for safety. If you’re concerned about the quality of a Philadelphia/PA or NJ facility or you suspect neglect or abuse has occurred at the Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, or New Jersey nursing home where your loved one lives, please contact nursing home abuse attorney Brian P. Murphy to discover your legal rights and options.

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