City nursing homes ravaged by the coronavirus were warned about disturbing patterns of unsanitary behavior long before the deadly outbreak, The Post has found.
The state Health Department cited more than a dozen COVID-19-stricken facilities in New York City for infractions such as healthcare workers not washing their hands, neglecting to wear personal protective equipment, allowing medical devices to lay on the floor and exposing residents’ wounds to germs.
The Post review of nursing home inspection reports from the state Health Department show 13 facilities with at least 10 coronavirus deaths as of Wednesday were cited for a total of 18 infection-control failures since March 2016.
The infractions were as recent as Jan. 31 — at Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center in East Harlem, where 20 have died. The New Jewish Home on the Upper West Side, where 24 have perished, had the most violations of the sample, with three.
In total, 413 residents of those 13 homes have succumbed to the virus, among more than 2,000 citywide — a scourge Gov. Cuomo has declared a “feeding frenzy.”
“Nursing homes are the single biggest fear in all of this,” he said at a recent press briefing.
Yet despite the vulnerable populations, the state has ordered homes to accept COVID-19 patients as long as they are medically stable. Homes with infections violations are among those taking in patients, The Post has learned.
Advocates say it’s created deadly, virus-spreading environments.
“Added to the fact they we’re unable mange infection controls before — now there is a shortage of PPE, staff is staying home because they are sick or afraid, and this is an industry that has been known to be chronically understaffed as well,” said Brian Lee of Families for Better Care.
“All of those things are the perfect storm for this worst case scenario in far too many nursing homes.”
Of facilities with state infection-control citations, Kings Harbor Multicare Center in the Bronx, Franklin Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing in Queens, and Carmel Richmond Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center on Staten Island have been hit hardest by the coronavirus, with 45 deaths each, according to the state’s partial list of homes with deaths.
Carmel Richmond was hit with a hand-washing violation in October 2016.
“The [certified nurse assistant] did not wash his hands with soap and water after providing incontinent care and disposing of the soiled linen,” an inspector wrote, according to Health Department records.
The worker was re-educated on “on the facility’s policy on Handling of Linens, Hand Hygiene and Provision of Perineal Care,” according to a corrective action report Carmel Richmond was required to submit to the state.
A spokesman defended the facility’s record, noting its five star rating from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Any suggestion “that this lone citation might in any way be related to the tragic loss of lives due to Covid-19 does a tremendous disservice to the heroic caregivers who put their lives on the line every day,” spokesman Jon Goldberg said, adding that Carmel Richmond has taken 19 coronavirus patients from hospitals since Cuomo’s March 25 order. At Carmel Richmond’s sister facility, Terence Cardinal Cooke in Harlem, 70 COVID-19 recoverees have been admitted, according to Goldberg.
Kings Harbor also said the COVID-19 spread there is a separate issue from the infection-control citations.
“Outbreaks of COVID-19 are not the result of inattentiveness or shortcomings in our facilities,” spokesman Roy Goldberg said. “The very nature of long-term care is a high touch environment where social distancing is not an option in providing care.”
Unsatisfactory hand-washing was also observed at Holliswood Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare in Queens, where 42 residents have died, and The New Jewish Home in Manhattan, site of 24 COVID-19 deaths.
“After removing her dirty gloves, the [licensed practical nurse] washed her hands quickly using improper technique,” an inspector wrote in December 2017 of a Holliswood nurse who had just treated a resident’s “cracked and calloused” foot wound.
Holliswood said it has since added extra infection controls, such as “education and routine observations of the staff.
“The facility has had a subsequent annual inspection with no violation in any area related to infection control,” spokesman Jeffrey Jacomowitz said.
The New Jewish Home was cited in 2016 and 2018 for hand hygiene violations and again in July 2019, when inspectors saw “two residents receiving oxygen … with the oxygen tubing . . . resting on the floor,” records state. The facility did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Investigators also saw oxygen tubes connected to resident’s respiratory passages and strewn on the floor on “several occasions” at the Bronx Center for Rehabilitation and Health Care (18 deaths), the NYS Veterans Home in Queens (19 deaths) and the Isabella Geriatric Center in Washington Heights (13 deaths).
At the Bronx Center for Rehabilitation & Health Care, “the deficiency was due to an isolated incident that occurred during the annual re-certification survey and the facility cleared the citation to the NY DOH satisfaction,” said Jacomowitz, spokesman for the home’s parent company, Centers Health Care, which also owns the Holliswood facility in Queens.
The state health department, which operates the Veterans Home, said the “citation from five years ago is based on an isolated incident,” spokesman Jeffrey Hammond said, noting the “issue was immediately corrected.”
Isabella Geriatric Center could not be reached.
Facilities also received PPE-related citations.
At the Chateau at Brooklyn Rehab and Nursing Center, one of two linked borough facilities where 90 have collectively died, a resident diagnosed with the contagious bacterial infection known as MRSA was observed sharing bedside sandwiches with an unprotected visitor in June last year. The facility was under a doctor’s order to post signage on the resident’s door instructing visitors to wear medical gear, the citation said.
The inspector was distressed by the findings.
“She stated that her visitor yesterday did not know that she had to wear gown and gloves and was very upset about this,” the inspector wrote. “I too was upset.”
The Chateau did not respond to messages from The Post.
At Huntington Hills Center for Health and Rehabilitation on Long Island, 18 residents have died of suspected coronavirus, according to a facility spokeswoman.
Inspectors there noted a filthy infection-control issue on a 2016 visit.
“A urinal with urine was found on the radiator next to [a bed] alongside the resident’s open breakfast tray,” a health inspector wrote, records show.
A facility spokeswoman denied any citation and noted its 5-star CMS rating.
“We continue to care for each resident pursuant to CDC and Department of Health guidelines, including stringently following infection control protocols,” Genevieve Worthington said.
Ellen Cariddi, whose 85-year-old mother Evelyn Gengenbach died of coronavirus a month after being sent to the Melville facility, said she was never informed of COVID-19 within its walls.
“I think they bear responsibility 100% to my family’s outbreak — three of six members of my family,” said Cariddi, noting she and her two daughters also became ill after interacting with her mother.
“We were under the impression that was the safest place for my mom.”
The state Health Department remains “committed to working with nursing homes and other healthcare providers to establish and implement strong infection control practices … that far precedes our unprecedented response to COVID-19,” Hammond said.